It’s been one month now since we’ve landed in Cambodia and two weeks since the project really started, after one year of building it!
This newsletter will be written by the team during the whole length of the project. You will find informations on the progress of it and news about us.
We arrived in Phnom Penh at the beginning of february and spent a few days in the capital. The perfect time for us to get immersed in this country and start to learn the basics of the language. We also wanted to take our time to witness the amount of plastic waste in all the streets and little rivers all through the city.
After a long local bus between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville (a 5 to 10h hours drive, depending on the bus) we observed the roads and the side roads, littered by all kinds of trash.
On Koh Rong Samloem island, the discovery was the same, perhaps even more shocking since it is a small area and that there are no waste treatment infrastructures on the island. The only way to get rid of the trash is to burn it in open air or to pay and put it on a boat to Sihanoukville.
In addition to the recent tourism on this island and the use of single-use plastic generates, piles of trash are left on the beaches. The amount is in constant profusion as we are aware of the trash is also brought by the oceans. It sure makes a lot…
During our stay, several people on the island organised a trash collecting event, so we joined them. We couldn’t miss this opportunity ! We found ourselves surrounded very quickly by the teachers from the khmer school and their students who came to support us.
Few days later, a little market took place on the main beach. We took advantage of it and took part of the market to talk about Precious Plastic and sensitize about plastic waste (use, degradation time) and talk about our project in Cambodia.
After a week on Koh Rong Samloem, we finally arrived in Chiro, where we will stay for the next 6 months. We met OBTs team and all the people we are going to work with in the village and community.
Trash is Nice project really starts at this point, surrounded by the two other recycling plastic projects (plastic-to-brick and plastic to fuel). A lot of PET bottle have been set aside, waiting for us to come and recycle them. So we have a lot of work to do !
We have to put aside the caps and labels from the bottle, which are not made from the same plastic. We also recuperate the straws (there are a lot here! )
The first floor from the workshop is entirely filled of empty bottles and all kinds of other plastic waste.
Sandrine and Denis, our partners from Association Sourires, initiators of the recycling plastic project in Chiro are here for a few days. It’s a good thing to be with them at the launch because they know the project since the beginning of it.
Whe have build with the help of other volunteers a concrete floor in the workshop, which is made in clay so that we can have a nice and flat floor, a good place to work with the Precious Plastic machines.
Mixing sand, rocks and cement for the floor
For march, the plans are to start building the machines and to concentrate on children sensibilisation and games around plastic.
We will send you more news soon !
Thanks for reading and your support,
Trash is Nice team
Manon Alix Alexis Théa