Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

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Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Phnom Penh and the Cintri garbage problem.
14 September 2017
As Cambodia’s capital becomes a modern metropolis, its sole garbage collection company is failing to keep up. Can Phnom Penh clean up its act?

The men here disappear in late afternoon. They leave their wives and children before the sun sets on low-rise apartment blocks jumbled together along dingy side streets on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. This neighbourhood in the capital’s industrial Dangkao district is the home base of the city’s sole private garbage collection company, Cintri, and hundreds of the workers hired to keep Phnom Penh clean.

By the time morning rolls around, Cintri’s hulking garbage trucks rumble back from the central districts of the capital to the depot at the heart of this community. The drivers drop off the keys on their way out of the gate and gather in small groups for a few hours of drinking rice wine and playing cards before heading home, a sort of nightcap in the middle of the morning.

Cintri, which has had a monopoly on trash collection in the city since 2002, has long complained that it’s being forced to stretch its resources well beyond what was expected of the company when it first signed on to keep Phnom Penh clean. The company has renegotiated its contract with the city multiple times, but it’s not clear what changes have been made, and Cintri won’t say whether the company is profitable.

One can only assume that Cintri has won significant concessions – its trucks have kept pounding the streets even as the population has almost doubled in size. The likelihood that Cintri is making money only compounds the frustration when trash starts spilling onto major boulevards during public holidays, plasters the city when floodwaters recede or simply goes uncollected for no apparent reason.
It also begs the question of why the company has not invested in basic equipment like public bins around the city, or in the safety of its workers by providing them with gloves or boots as they wade through the capital’s refuse. In a city that aims to be a global draw for business and tourism, Cintri is not getting the job done...
http://sea-globe.com/cintri-phnom-penh/
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by timmydownawell »

I think something could be done to reduce the amount of rubbish (especially plastic bags). In Australia, the councils only collect garbage once a week, and recyclables every second week. In PP they collect every day. I know it's more densely populated here but that seems a bit over the top.
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by John Bingham »

The charges for garbage collection are very low compared to developed countries, my bill for example is usually only $1 a month, pegged onto my electricity bill. There are too many places where a market or village just dumps all their garbage in a nearby space, often blocking part of a major thoroughfare. There were new laws brought in recently to curb the excessive use of plastic bags but I haven't noticed any changes on the ground. It annoys me how many places that could look great are buried in plastic bags and styrofoam packaging, it really makes the place look shit and too many don't really care and keep throwing crap everywhere.
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

timmydownawell wrote:I think something could be done to reduce the amount of rubbish (especially plastic bags). In Australia, the councils only collect garbage once a week, and recyclables every second week. In PP they collect every day. I know it's more densely populated here but that seems a bit over the top.
Wouldn't work in the tropics with all the insects and vermin. There are many easy ways to address the issues, mainly it's that the government has never taken the issue of garbage disposal very seriously.
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by timmydownawell »

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:35 am
timmydownawell wrote:I think something could be done to reduce the amount of rubbish (especially plastic bags). In Australia, the councils only collect garbage once a week, and recyclables every second week. In PP they collect every day. I know it's more densely populated here but that seems a bit over the top.
Wouldn't work in the tropics with all the insects and vermin. There are many easy ways to address the issues, mainly it's that the government has never taken the issue of garbage disposal very seriously.
Well that's true, and it's compounded further by not having wheelie bins so the rats and other scavengers can have a free for all.
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by Fourkinnel »

So many video's on Youtube about turning plastic into fuel. No one is interested it seems. And the crap pile gets bigger every year.

Example.

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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by bangkokhooker »

^ I think he's been inhaling the fumes that are not recycled.
"Like cowabunga dude"

You need to sort all the different types of plastics as they require different processes to extract the "oil". I doubt that stuff is oil but aromatics.

Sadly it cost too much to setup these systems and as the big petrochemical companies want to control everything they certainly don't want local governments making their own fuel.

I'm guessing but 1 tonne of plastic would make about what 5 gallons?
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by Kuroneko »

bangkokhooker wrote: Wed Sep 20, 2017 11:43 am ^ I think he's been inhaling the fumes that are not recycled.
"Like cowabunga dude"

You need to sort all the different types of plastics as they require different processes to extract the "oil". I doubt that stuff is oil but aromatics.

Sadly it cost too much to setup these systems and as the big petrochemical companies want to control everything they certainly don't want local governments making their own fuel.

I'm guessing but 1 tonne of plastic would make about what 5 gallons?
Based on the calculation that one ton of scrap plastics would produce 264 gallons of consumer-ready fuel, it takes about 7.57 pounds of plastic to make one gallon of fuel. https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/Plastics-to-Oil/
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

On the bright side, some authorities have launched a big clean up this week, clearing a canal blocked with fetid garbage.

Truckloads of trash removed from canal
27 September 2017
Chamkamorn district authorities have been collecting garbage out of the Boeung Trabek canal this week, hauling nearly 200 truckloads of trash over two days and appealing to residents to stop discarding rubbish in the waterway.
Image
Boeung Trabek commune chief Sen Bote said the authorities went to clean the canal this week because a build-up of rubbish had recently led to heavy floods.
“We appeal to the villagers to stop throwing garbage into the canal,” he said, noting 185 truckloads of trash had been removed from the canal so far.

Ven Sam, 43, a local who lives along the Beong Trabek canal, said a number of residents discarded trash into the canal, but noted that some of the trash travels via the canal into the commune from elsewhere.
“We live with the garbage and bad smell every day,” he said. “We are used to it now. Some residents here have always thrown garbage into the canal where they live even though it makes the area dirty and causes floods.”...

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5083654/tru ... ved-canal/
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Re: Phnom Penh, “a city of garbage”; Globe article.

Post by willyhilly »

In tropical Australia our two big metal bins are picked up three times a week, they serve 42 apartments. It's all covered by the rates to the council which cost each unit about $2400 a year.
In the wet season blowflies appear in great numbers especially after a rainy period. The maggots need damp, in the dry season there are no blowflies.
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