No, this is not the kind of visit I would describe on a postcard to Grandma.
Today, I went to the head office for "Global Action for Environmental Awareness" (GAEA) after seeing the logo on many public rubbish bins (yup! we aren't in Kansas anymore, so trash = rubbish) throughout Siem Reap. (Although there are rubbish bins, rubbish is littered throughout the city and dogs often pick through the rubbish... as do people collecting anything of value including but not limited to: plastic bottles, cans (3 cans is 100Riel, or $0.025 I am told), cardboard, and kitchen scraps to make pig farms.) Why did I set up an appointment to go to GAEA? Because I was interested in how the rubbish collection system works as it is vital to the functioning of a clean and healthy city. Where do you think rubbish goes in New York? Dear reader, it does not vanish into thin air.
Note: GAEA is the only legal mechanism, but in Cambodia you are more than welcome to dispose of your rubbish illegally without direct consequences to yourself.
I could barely find any information about GAEA online except for a yellowpages.kh website. I found this very strange seeing as it is a company of immensely huge importance for the city to function well. When I finally found a website for GAEA, it would not load on my computer. I later found out that GAEA has a website domain, but the company just hasn't actually created their website because as GAEA's director Pho Phallkunn told me, there is really no need for one. At first I was a bit shocked (um, seeing as I have multiple websites about myself i.e. Facebook, Twitter, this blog, another blog, and a super old blog from 2010), but then realized that because most people in Cambodia do not have steady access to internet, they would not be looking up their rubbish pick up system online. And in reality, I have never looked at New York's rubbish pick-up website online either.
The office was in what looked like what could have been a house. There was a secretary office with about six people working, and then Phallkunn's office more toward the back. I first asked for general background about GAEA because, as I said, I could not find a lot online.
In 2002, all of Cambodia's waste collection system was officially privatized; however, before then, it was privatized unofficially anyhow. Phnom Penh has a private rubbish collection system with a Canadian company, Phallkunn told me, and was the foremost rubbish system in Cambodia until GAEA. Founded in 2007, GAEA is a for-profit business for rubbish collection and is the only rubbish collection system in Siem Reap (honestly, from the name, I assumed it was a non-profit business concerned with the environment solely). For $1.50 a month, you can have your rubbish collected (although I am unsure if this is for individuals and also for large hotels). GAEA estimates that they handle 180-190 metric tonnes of rubbish every day. They have a 50 year lease on the Siem Reap City rubbish system (the villages' rubbish collection consists of collecting it into a pile and burning it). In the past five years, GAEA has expanded to other cities in Cambodia including Kampot, Bantey Meanchey, and Kampong Thom.
In 2009, GAEA relocated Siem Reap's open dump that was only 7km out of Siem Reap town to one that is 25km out of Siem Reap and 500 meters from the closest residence (the one 7km out of town was in a town-- and I am unsure if this dump might still be used unofficially). GAEA's dump is 8 meters deep and protected with clay compact on all sides (except the top, of course). GAEA would like a technical and closed dump to enable them to collect methane gas and use it for energy (a CDM project or "Clean Development Mechanism") as opposed to an open dump, and although supposedly money has been funded for this, a technical dump has yet to happen. GAEA receives no consistent formal funding from the government. South Korea gave roughly 2 million USD five years ago for a technical landfill that has yet to materialize--and sadly, the money seems to have mysteriously "vanished" (a.k.a., it has likely been used to purchase a yacht or two). Yet two years ago, the Ministry of Environment in Cambodian pledged about 4 million USD for a technical landfill (which supposedly is happening at least in Poi Pet on the Thai border).
GAEA's open dump outside of Siem Reap is subject to scavengers and fires in the dry season, making a covered dump a lot safer. According to Phallkunn, there is no cut-and-dry way to remove the scavengers from the dump (this is how some people make a living). People scavenge through the dump, and people scavenge through the rubbish bins in Siem Reap city. People know that scavenging has awful health side effects, but this is what they have to do to get by (and this is where the overarching government ideally should step in and help out, ex. job creation or something). However, private companies like GAEA are basically left to negotiate with local politicians and the government without actually receiving any tangible and measurable support from the government. The government has no initiative to help, and GAEA can only work so hard and still remain afloat as a profitable business. GAEA's hope is to have a technical landfill in Siem Reap in the next five to seven years.
Toward the end of out chat, we discussed how tourism creates an opportunity for more rigorous rubbish collection. Who wants to come to Siem Reap when the city is overrun with rubbish? Phallkunn estimates that 65% of all hotels comply with GAEA's standardized rubbish pick up schema, the majority of this 65% being larger, internationally managed hotels. Angkor Wat Complex uses EnviroCam, a private cleaning service to pick up litter all over the park. EnviroCam is actually associated with APSARA, the management group that runs the Angkor UNESCO World Heritage site. The real challenge, as stated, is in the cities. In fact, Phallkun joked that EnviroCam gets a lot of the credit with GAEA being overlooked.
I asked Phallkunn when the rubbish problem really ballooned in Cambodia. He mentioned that in 2004 and 2005, Cambodia experienced an economic boom and there was a lot of rural-urban migration. Phnom Penh's population, for example, has increased to 2.2 million residents from 634,000 in 1990, and at the end of the Khmer Rouge genocide a reported (as per Wikipedia) 32,000. This is wicked fast, people!!
To distill this post into crucial points: the key to solving the the rubbish problem, according to Phallkunn, will be a combination of education that leads to behavioral change and market forces at work (a lot of the same rhetoric used for solving environmental problems in general). There are still a plethora of challenges that face GAEA, such as electronic waste, road conditions prohibiting rubbish pick up at all, illegal disposal on the streets, and practices that people have a hard time giving up, such as burying and burning rubbish.
*the first line of this post does not include my Oma, who would love to read about this :)
.JPG) |
| Front of the Building |
Note: GAEA is the only legal mechanism, but in Cambodia you are more than welcome to dispose of your rubbish illegally without direct consequences to yourself.
I could barely find any information about GAEA online except for a yellowpages.kh website. I found this very strange seeing as it is a company of immensely huge importance for the city to function well. When I finally found a website for GAEA, it would not load on my computer. I later found out that GAEA has a website domain, but the company just hasn't actually created their website because as GAEA's director Pho Phallkunn told me, there is really no need for one. At first I was a bit shocked (um, seeing as I have multiple websites about myself i.e. Facebook, Twitter, this blog, another blog, and a super old blog from 2010), but then realized that because most people in Cambodia do not have steady access to internet, they would not be looking up their rubbish pick up system online. And in reality, I have never looked at New York's rubbish pick-up website online either.
The office was in what looked like what could have been a house. There was a secretary office with about six people working, and then Phallkunn's office more toward the back. I first asked for general background about GAEA because, as I said, I could not find a lot online.
In 2002, all of Cambodia's waste collection system was officially privatized; however, before then, it was privatized unofficially anyhow. Phnom Penh has a private rubbish collection system with a Canadian company, Phallkunn told me, and was the foremost rubbish system in Cambodia until GAEA. Founded in 2007, GAEA is a for-profit business for rubbish collection and is the only rubbish collection system in Siem Reap (honestly, from the name, I assumed it was a non-profit business concerned with the environment solely). For $1.50 a month, you can have your rubbish collected (although I am unsure if this is for individuals and also for large hotels). GAEA estimates that they handle 180-190 metric tonnes of rubbish every day. They have a 50 year lease on the Siem Reap City rubbish system (the villages' rubbish collection consists of collecting it into a pile and burning it). In the past five years, GAEA has expanded to other cities in Cambodia including Kampot, Bantey Meanchey, and Kampong Thom.
In 2009, GAEA relocated Siem Reap's open dump that was only 7km out of Siem Reap town to one that is 25km out of Siem Reap and 500 meters from the closest residence (the one 7km out of town was in a town-- and I am unsure if this dump might still be used unofficially). GAEA's dump is 8 meters deep and protected with clay compact on all sides (except the top, of course). GAEA would like a technical and closed dump to enable them to collect methane gas and use it for energy (a CDM project or "Clean Development Mechanism") as opposed to an open dump, and although supposedly money has been funded for this, a technical dump has yet to happen. GAEA receives no consistent formal funding from the government. South Korea gave roughly 2 million USD five years ago for a technical landfill that has yet to materialize--and sadly, the money seems to have mysteriously "vanished" (a.k.a., it has likely been used to purchase a yacht or two). Yet two years ago, the Ministry of Environment in Cambodian pledged about 4 million USD for a technical landfill (which supposedly is happening at least in Poi Pet on the Thai border).
GAEA's open dump outside of Siem Reap is subject to scavengers and fires in the dry season, making a covered dump a lot safer. According to Phallkunn, there is no cut-and-dry way to remove the scavengers from the dump (this is how some people make a living). People scavenge through the dump, and people scavenge through the rubbish bins in Siem Reap city. People know that scavenging has awful health side effects, but this is what they have to do to get by (and this is where the overarching government ideally should step in and help out, ex. job creation or something). However, private companies like GAEA are basically left to negotiate with local politicians and the government without actually receiving any tangible and measurable support from the government. The government has no initiative to help, and GAEA can only work so hard and still remain afloat as a profitable business. GAEA's hope is to have a technical landfill in Siem Reap in the next five to seven years.
Toward the end of out chat, we discussed how tourism creates an opportunity for more rigorous rubbish collection. Who wants to come to Siem Reap when the city is overrun with rubbish? Phallkunn estimates that 65% of all hotels comply with GAEA's standardized rubbish pick up schema, the majority of this 65% being larger, internationally managed hotels. Angkor Wat Complex uses EnviroCam, a private cleaning service to pick up litter all over the park. EnviroCam is actually associated with APSARA, the management group that runs the Angkor UNESCO World Heritage site. The real challenge, as stated, is in the cities. In fact, Phallkun joked that EnviroCam gets a lot of the credit with GAEA being overlooked.
I asked Phallkunn when the rubbish problem really ballooned in Cambodia. He mentioned that in 2004 and 2005, Cambodia experienced an economic boom and there was a lot of rural-urban migration. Phnom Penh's population, for example, has increased to 2.2 million residents from 634,000 in 1990, and at the end of the Khmer Rouge genocide a reported (as per Wikipedia) 32,000. This is wicked fast, people!!
To distill this post into crucial points: the key to solving the the rubbish problem, according to Phallkunn, will be a combination of education that leads to behavioral change and market forces at work (a lot of the same rhetoric used for solving environmental problems in general). There are still a plethora of challenges that face GAEA, such as electronic waste, road conditions prohibiting rubbish pick up at all, illegal disposal on the streets, and practices that people have a hard time giving up, such as burying and burning rubbish.
*the first line of this post does not include my Oma, who would love to read about this :)
