GGGI Supported a Study Tour to the UK on Solid Waste Management

LONDON, The United Kingdom, February 17, 2020 – The GGGI Cambodia team and the Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP), supported the British Embassy in Phnom Penh, organized a study trip to the United Kingdom (UK) to learn about the UK’s waste management systems and technologies. Entrants in the study trip included eight Cambodian provincial and national government officials and were accompanied by the GGGI Cambodia team’s waste management officer, the UK ambassador to Cambodia, the director from the UK Embassy’s department for international trade and the manager from the British High Commission Singapore. In London, the delegation was joined by the Cambodian Ambassador to the UK.

The one-week mission took place in London and Northern Ireland and started with a visit to the Department for International Trade for an overview of the UK waste management systems including recent trends, strategies and policies. The following 3 days consisted of visits to treatment plants most relevant to the Cambodian context, namely:

A Material and Biological Treatment (MBT) plant to treat unsegregated household waste.
Two anaerobic digestion/biogas plants to treat organic waste
An Incineration to Energy plant to treat residual household waste
A Material Recycling Facility (MRF) to separate commingled recyclable wastes such as paper, glass, cardboard, and cans
Various technology providers in Northern Ireland

The delegation also visited the London Waste and Recycling Board to learn about strategies and actions at the city level. During the visit, the delegation learnt firsthand what technologies can achieve, their cost, and the systems required to enable their establishment. Some of the key learning including the long-term efforts required to educate communities on waste minimization and source separation to achieve meaningful targets, and the need for government support and adequate taxation to enable setting up financially sustainable waste processing facilities. The delegation also learnt about source separation of recyclables at a household level, and the need to focus efforts on organic/food waste as it is the largest waste fraction, can be recycled, and because it contaminates the rest of the feedstock. Finally, the need for complementary technologies such as waste to energy for residual waste that cannot be recycled was also observed.

These learnings will be very useful as the Cambodia government is aiming to improve the waste management system in the Kingdom, with form example Phnom Penh embarking on a revamp of the collection and transport system while considering the implementation of large-scale waste treatment facilities.
https://gggi.org/gggi-supported-a-study ... anagement/

they should focus first on collection

I did my own study tour around Kandel market today and here is what I found.

England does not have a waste management system. wheelie bins collected everyfortnight to encourage wildlife, plasti csent abraod for burning. toxic electronic waste sent to africa for recycling. last place you coul earn anything constructive about waste management. Lot of waste, lots of mismanagement

pczz wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 5:58 am England does not have a waste management system. wheelie bins collected everyfortnight to encourage wildlife, plasti csent abraod for burning. toxic electronic waste sent to africa for recycling. last place you coul earn anything constructive about waste management. Lot of waste, lots of mismanagement

I dissagree I have a weekly kerbside collection one week being recyclable waste (paper cardboard glass metal and recyclable plastic) and the second week general non-recyclable household rubbish. Also a weekly collection of food waste. I have regular visits to my garden from foxes and the occasional deer and have never encountered any problems. I don't leave rotting food lying around in plastic sacks or leave the tops off my waste bins.
In addition for a fee I can have any green garden waste collected every other week or can take it myself to the local recycling site for free where it will be composted ans sold as garden compost.

All large retailers charge for plastic bags unless they are used to wrap meat and fish with the money going to charity to discouraged their use unlike Cambodia where in the market every item warrants its own bag. I have bought my girlfriend numerous shopping bags so it is unnecessary to bag vegetables and fruit just the meat and fish, however she forgets to take the bag.

I hope they studied the government itself, plenty of examples of waste and wastrels there.

uk can't talk, they still have boris and royals so much solid waste

Nice little jolly........Flights...Hotels...Food allowance ....Shame about the weather though

Yes! supermarkets charge here now for plastic carriers. Drinking water bottles seem the biggest problem here in the recyclable department, in the city always see people collecting them late at night, but plenty litter roadsides everywhere. more then likely its the recyclable price per Ton that lets it down. It's very problematic the used water bottle too the environment. As the bottle is recycled they then become lower quality plastic as they go through the recycling process again and again. Aluminium cans are preferred to most because of the empty resale price, although when the materials are mined it is problematic to the environment. but the recycle value to date is the most recycled material in the world, that being 55% of Aluminium cans are recycled worldwide. So why don't they scrap the plastic water bottle, and can the water instead. Seems simple, but is it?

canned water is a thing


making it reusable makes more sense though


water bottles can be reused, as can thicker plastic bags etc

a bigger problem is toiletries
toothpaste tubes
shampoo bottles, some even with pump mechanisms, etc
and packaging in general

i think recycling is a waste of time, for plastics especially (metals make sense)
make stuff reusable in some way