POVERTY AND RECYCLING IN CAMBODIA (17 images)

POVERTY AND RECYCLING IN CAMBODIA

Informal waste collection systems have many environmental and economic advantages. They reduce the need for landfill and save natural resources while providing an important lifeline for some of the world's poorest people. In Buenos Aires, informal waste collectors known as "scavengers" recover 9 - 17% of municipal waste, representing an estimated saving for the municipality of $30,000 USD to $70,000 USD each day. Waste scavengers...
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POVERTY AND RECYCLING IN CAMBODIA

Informal waste collection systems have many environmental and economic advantages. They reduce the need for landfill and save natural resources while providing an important lifeline for some of the world's poorest people. In Buenos Aires, informal waste collectors known as "scavengers" recover 9 - 17% of municipal waste, representing an estimated saving for the municipality of $30,000 USD to $70,000 USD each day. Waste scavengers have dramatically shortened life expectancies and many have poor health and living conditions, sometimes working at night without any protective clothing. In Asia, whole communities have developed out of the waste industry and handle up to 75% of urban waste.

The World Bank states that 35% of Cambodia's population of around 14 million exists on less than $.50 USD per day. They also estimate that up to 2% of the population in third world countries survives by recovering materials from waste.

This gallery depicts people who collect recyclable material to sustain themselves in the Cambodian cities of Kampong Cham and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The price of scrap metal at the wholesale end fell from 1600 riels per kilogram (4100 riels = 1 USD) to just 300 RPK recently, but has rebounded to 600 RPK of April, 2009. Collection of plastic water bottles remains a top priority for recyclable material collectors as wholesalers are presently paying street scavengers 3000 riels per kilogram (April 2009).
Sources:

The World Bank
Rob Bowden, Waste recycling and reuse: Our impact on the planet, 2003
IOM/UNICEF, Infrome Sobre Trabajo Infantil en la Recuperacion y Reciclaje de Residuos, 2005
Stéphane Kluser, UNEP/GRID-Arendal, 2006
JICA Study on Solid Waste Management in Metropolitan Phnom Penh
John Brown, Photojournalist Cambodia
http://johnbrownphotos.blogspot.com/
http://www.lightstalkers.org/john_brown
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