Sustainable Local Solid Waste Management

Coach: Basil Vassilicos

Student: Bunna Kal

2013-2014

Beyond Engineering Report

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Sustainable Local Solid Waste Management

INTRODUCTION

Everyone always wants to live with beauty; no one wants to live with ugliness. They have to dress

with a nice clothes and makeup in order to be more attractive to other people around them.

However, beauty cannot fulfill people needs to make their life resilient, everyone desires to be in

a fresh and clean environment. Clean environment is really important in everyday life, everyone

should know about the greatness of it. If they make a bad effect to environment, as the consequence

it appears that they will be getting the bad effect from it. Now let us know “The definition of

environment”. Environment refers to everything around us both all living and non- living objects

that have communicated with each other on the Earth. As we have already mentioned about the

definition of environment, waste is also one part of the environment and that we should take into

account and care about it. Waste is a major health hazard that undermines people’s rights to

a safe life. All forms of waste — municipal, bio-medical, e-waste, or industrial, if not

treated and disposed carefully are a threat to the health of people as well as the environment.

Did you know how much do we waste daily? In average a person generate 4.3 pounds (1.95

kilogram) of waste per day. We can imagine that only a small family with 4 members, every day

they will produce 4.3 x 4 pounds waste and then per year it will be 4.3 x 4 x 356 pounds. The

calculation results a large amount of waste which produced by only a small family of 4 members.

How much the amount of waste was produced by the people in one country every day and every

year? This will become the major issue that requires everyone’s attention and serious action to

prevent or to resolve it. Everyone should know how to reduce and manage waste; otherwise it will

be worst to their living environment. It does not matter, if the waste created by in person is effected

only one person who made it. But it will be the problem in the community/society and then it will

become the serious problem in the whole country. For instance, a plastic bag waste that we drop


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away on the land, then recently it will be disappeared on the soil but it belongs in the ground. The

indefinite period of time that it takes for the average plastic bag to breakdown can be literally

hundreds of years. Every bag that ends up in the woodlands of the country threatens the natural

progression of wildlife[2]. Although plastic bags are a waste but we still can take the advantage of

it. We can recycle the plastic bags by using it again and again till it cannot carry any more stuffs,

then we throw it away in the waste bin. So it is good, if start from a person who know how to

manage their waste by dividing it into the groups. It is simply only two groups of waste should be

divided-- recyclable and unrecyclable waste.

We should have a prevention to manage waste in society to hold a sustainable environment. A

local waste management should be brought into consideration at every community, industry,

society, school, market, and society etc. The intentions of the local waste management are to

oversee the waste by starting from the local small place, simply manage the waste in the household.

They can manage their waste by preparing two kinds of waste bin; recyclable and non-recyclable

bin. Regularly, they should bring the non-recyclable waste to the Public landfill. In addition, the

local waste management aims to have a clean environment locally where possible in order to

sustain the local economy and to reduce environmental impacts by minimizing the amount of waste

disposed, the amount of carbon emission, the soil erosion and water pollution. It offers a local

economy supported by making the multitude who live with the clean environment have a good

health, and healthy people will not spend much money to see a doctor. Moreover, a tourism country

with the clean and fresh environment is the most targeted tourism site. The living-standard of

people will be better with the sustainable environment. Locally waste management tends to be

fresher and clean environment since they don’t make the bad effect to the environment, as we


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already known the relationship between the "three pillars of sustainability", suggesting that both

economy and society are constrained by environmental limits

LITERATURE REVIEW

There are many ways for managing the solid waste in every country, we will have a closed look at

three different theme countries, and how these three countries manage their local solid waste.

As with many nations in the Asia–Pacific region, Cambodia is embarking on a period of rapid

urban growth. But with the increasing number of populations comes increasing demand for

improved sanitation and waste management. Cambodia is a one of developing countries which

most people live in rural society, with 84.3% of its 14 million estimated population living

in rural areas. The remaining 15.7% urban dwellers live predominantly in Phnom Penh, which has

an estimated Population of 1.2 million in 2002. The population in Phnom Penh grows at a faster

rate than in the country overall, with an estimated 8% per annum Made of a 3% in-migration rate

and a 5% natural Increase. As the population is growing very fast the city will face with the solid

waste management problem.

Current Status of Solid Waste Management: The management, collection and transportation of

solid wastes in Cambodia are still weak, as a result of a number of factors, including a low budget,

a shortage of all types of equipment needed for the transportation, collection and storage of waste,

weak laws and enforcement and no overall management plan. Transportation and collection

processes are complicated and the services are slow and unpredictable (Cotter, 2000). Thus, solid

waste issues presented in Phnom Penh city. As indicated in the figure 2.1 above, the volume of

solid waste in Phnom Penh City has doubled between 1994 and 2002. The collected mixed solid


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wastes, from different sources like domestics, hospital, commercial sectors, are being disposed in

an open dumped site which is no longer suitable with increasing piles of waste.

Figure 2.1:The volume of solid Waste generation in Phnom Penh

The Solid Waste Management (SWM), in Cambodia have been privatized to private companies,

under supervision from local agencies and technical job agencies. The sub-decree on SWM,

enacted in April, 1999, was established to regulate SWM in a proper technical and safe manner to

protect human health and the environment. The sub-decree sets the overall framework for SWM

in Cambodia and applies to all activities related to “the disposal, storage, collection, transport,

recycling, and dumping of waste. In order to improve the SWM, MoE1 has developed a new 3R’s

national strategy (2009) but implementation of the strategy is still very limited, Waste recycling

has been done only by private recyclers (informally) and some NGOs but on a limited scale(See

Figure 2.2 below).

1 Ministry of Education


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Figure 2.1: Solid Waste Management System

Collection and Transportation: CINTRI, one of CINTEC’s branches based in Canada, was

granted an exclusive agreement by Phnom Penh Municipality in 2002 on the provision of garbage

collection services for the period of 49 years. This company has a clear vision “Zero waste in

Phnom Penh and three branches”. Waste collection serves only at urban and municipal areas

including domestic, markets, commercial & government administrative centers, and public school

or university. Cambodia has the combinational collection systems as the following:

Curbside collection,

Container collection-stationary,

Container collection-Leased,

Primary/secondary collection, with or without recycling center,


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Street sweeping.

To ensure the smooth manual collection system, over 800 workers are deployed and actively

collecting waste in eight khans of Phnom Penh by sweeping boulevards/streets and picking

garbage at public places.

140 drivers for 138 trucks consist of compactor trucks and arm roll trucks in associated with over

350 push carts are available to operate cleaning and transporting waste at all operating areas. This

transport system is dynamically loading the garbage amounting to 1,200 tons a day to the dumpsite

where situated about 16 km outside of the city.

The Waste Collection Schedule has been sufficiently prepared and distributed to local authorities

to ensure local residents widely aware of collection time. This schedule helps local residents

package, keep and take out their garbage at the right time. The schedule also indicates the shifts

for which the Company arranges to operate efficiently and effectively. These shifts are night and

day. The night shift is generally more preferable to day one as result of avoiding waste jam,

impacting resident health and commercial transactions. There are 60 Dump sites and a landfill in

countries. The waste disposal in Phnom Penh city:

Only about 70 % of waste generation is disposed into the landfill,

15 % is self-disposal,

9 % is recycled and

8 % is illegal dumping.

Solid Waste Bin: The dust bins that are rotationally molded using industrial polyethylene which

ensures durability and strength for long years. These dust bins have been imported from Vietnam


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and other countries. Our range is ideal for public places, markets & plazas, and any outdoor places.

Some of the salient features of our dust bin are smooth surface, easy to clean, easy installation,

fixed to ground, easy to empty by rotating and corrosion resistance.

Recycling Process: Generally, recycling is done by self-help groups of people such as waste

generator, street waste picker, street buyer, waste collector, and waste picker at the dumpsite and

deport owners. Beside of that, it also is done by community groups of people, NGOs etc…that

involved or get the profit with waste (See Figure 2.3 below).

Figure 2.3: Recycling Activities

India is a country in South Asia. It is the largest country by area, the second-most populous country

with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. New Delhi is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy


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the capital of India and seat of the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of the Government

of India. It is also the Centre of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New

Delhi constitutes roughly 1% of the population of Delhi metropolis. With a population of 22

million in 2011, Delhi metropolitan region is the world's second most populous city and the largest

city in India and also one of the largest in the world in terms of area. With the large amount of

population city New Delhi also face the problem with solid waste manage.

Current Status of Solid Waste Management: Management of solid wastes has become a critical

issue for almost all the major cities in India. Although the responsibility of solid waste management

remains primarily with the municipal bodies, several other stakeholder groups play significant

roles in the process. Three municipal bodies - the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the New

Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB), are responsible for

solid waste management in Delhi. MCD alone manage almost 95 % of the total area of the city.

The above authorities are supported by a number of other age ncies. The Delhi Development

Authority (DDA) is responsible for siting and allotment of land to MCD for sanitary land filling.

Delhi Energy Development Agency (DEDA) under Delhi Administration (DA) is responsible for

solid waste utilization projects aiming at bio- gas or energy generation in consultation with the

Department of Non - Conventional Energy Sources (DNES), and Ministry of Environment and

Forests (MoEF), Government of India. The Department of Flood Control of Delhi Administration

looks after the supply of soil to be used as cover for sanitary landfills by the MCD.

Apart from the above public agencies there are other important agents who play their part in the

overall scheme of solid waste management in the city. They are private sweepers and garbage

collectors employed by the people for cleaning privately owned premises, waste pickers, waste

dealers and recycling industries, which consume recyclable waste to produce recycled products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_city

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Delhi


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Waste Collection and Transportation The west zone of Delhi is, indeed, a true representative

of the concrete jungle, an area of approximately 79.75 km having a residential population of 15.80

lakhs. The municipal solid waste generated from the 16 wards of which the whole zone comprises

of, is well above 500 tons per day. The whole task of collection, segregation and transportation is

given shape by a team of field supervisors – 45 in number, office/tech. staff – 42 in number, drivers

– 50 in number, helpers – 60 in number and dahlia workers – 500 in number. All the 16 wards

have been divided into 4 sets of 4 wards each and have been put under the governance of a team

leader Identification of critical points under his area, where garbage is being dumped or there is a

lack of a dhalao and placement of adequate number of bins in those critical areas. We can

summarize the process of solid waste management in Delhi by the Figure 2.4 below:

Figure 2.4: Waste Management System in Delhi

Storage and Solid Waste Segmentation System components support segregation and comprise

of waste storage depots and street corner bins.


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Waste storage depots: The waste storage depots (Figures 2.5) have been reconstructed, repaired

and maintained. Each waste storage depot is usually looked after by 3 people. The waste is not

thrown on the floor of the WSD as was the practice earlier but is stored in bins. There are separate

bins for wet and dry waste. The capacity of each bin 1100ltrs. Each WSD contains 8 to 12 bins.

Water, electricity and drainage connections have also been provided in the WSDs. All the waste

is collected daily from the WSDs and nothing is left. Proper hygiene and cleanliness is also

maintained.

Figure 2.5:The Elevation and the Plan of Waste Storage Depots

Street corner bins: Street Corner Bins have been placed for the purpose of waste collection in the

residential colonies, commercial establishments and other institutions. Waste from the households,

offices etc. is brought and dropped into these SCBs. However the responsibility of bringing the

waste to the SCBs lies upon the waste generators. There is no door to door collection system.

Minimum one SCB has been placed in an area of 1 sq.km. There are separate bins for wet and dry


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waste. The bins have been placed after the consultation with the local residents. The bins are

properly looked after and are repaired from time to time according to the requirement. The repair

work is done at the Subhash Nagar central workshop. SCB’s, bins inside the Dhalaos and the

vehicles have been colour coded and support primary segregation of waste into wet and dry

portions. The Dhalao (WSD) workers have been assigned the task of separating the recyclable

portion from the total waste. Segregation is done at the WSD’s and sorting trolleys have been

provided to facilitate the process of segregation. All the recyclable waste sorted at the WSD’s is

brought to the ward office in the evening and is weighed. Every Dhalao worker is paid according

to the weight of the recyclable waste segregated by him in compliance with the market rate and

serves as an extra source of income.

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal monarchy in Western Europe. It is a

founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters as well as those of

several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528

square kilometers (11,787 sq. mi), and it has a population of about 11 million people. As Belgium

is one of developing country in European, we are going to see the ways how they are managing

their solid waste locally.

Current Status Of Solid Waste Management Waste management in Belgium falls under

the responsibility of three regions: Brussels Capital Region, Flanders and Wallonia, where

waste management planning and statistical reporting are undertaken by three separate entities.

In order to understand the context of the waste management situation in Belgium, it is important

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

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to understand that the Brussels Capital Region represents 9 % of the MSW2 generated in

Belgium, Flanders represents 60 % of the MSW generated and Wallonia represents 31 % of the

MSW generated (the total MSW generated in Belgium in 2010 is about 5 million tonnes). Figure

2.6 indicates the evolution of MSW generated per capita. Between 2001 and 2010, the

generation per capita has been fluctuating between a minimum of 466 kg per inhabitant (2010) to

495 kg (2007) with an average generation per capita of 481 kg over this time period.

Figure 2.6: MSW generations per capita in Belgium

The three regions of Belgium have separate waste management strategies and therefore it makes

sense to undertake a more complete analysis on the recycling performance for each of these three

regions. Among of these three regions, Brussels region was selected to have a closed look at the

process how to manage their own local solid waste. Brussels Environment (IBGE-BIM) is the

2 Municipal Solid Waste


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public administration for environment and energy of the Brussels-Capital Region. Brussels

Environment has extensive experience in waste prevention actions in the Brussels-Capital Region

involving different target groups, waste flows and means:

Target groups: households, schools, offices, shops, hotels, restaurants and catering, green

spaces

Waste flows: food, paper, green waste, packaging, nappies, gadgets, textiles etc.

Examples of actions: fighting unnecessary purchases, decentralized composting, “stop

advertisement” stickers etc.

The waste prevention and management established by Brussels Environment (IBGE) in association

with the Bruxelles-Propreté3/Net Brussel (the regional Agency for Sanitation, ABP). It involves

all the solid waste produced in the Brussels Region by households, businesses, industries and any

other economic activities. The amount of waste produced each year in the Brussels area (about 350

kg/inhabitant/year), requires the Brussels-Capital Region to find a delicate balance between

solutions that are environmentally sound and of which the removal cost remains financially

acceptable.

Container and bag collections Collection of organic waste: Bruxelles-Propreté organizes

collections of waste in containers for their customers. Containers of different colors are provided

by type of waste (blue for PMC, yellow for paper-cardboard, green for bottles, jars and flasks in

clear glass, grey/black for residual waste and brown for organic waste).

3 Private company who responsible for collecting waste regularly


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Recycle Process: Belgium, as a country, has already met its recycling obligations. In the Brussels

Capital Region, source separation of municipal waste has occurred since the early nineties,

but on a voluntary basis. Since 2010, separate collection of municipal waste is mandatory. This

new instrument is likely to further increase the recycling rate of MSW in subsequent years.

Failure to comply with the mandatory separation of waste by households is sanctioned by a fine

of up to EUR 625, which could well be a strong driver for behavioral change.

According to the above description we can make some comparison among these three countries:

Similarity:

These three countries have the similar way to manage their waste by using Public-Private

Company. The company responsible for collecting and transport the solid waste to landfill.

The ways that they use to run their business quick similar :

o hire the worker to collect and transport the waste

o have vehicle to collect the waste regularly

o have the solid waste bin to temporary store the solid from everywhere

o divide the worker into a group and a specific location

Every company have involved or investigated by public sector such as Ministry of

Environment and Forest, Ministry of Tourism, and Ministry of Education etc.

Differentiation:

Both Cambodia and India are have only one private company to collect and transport solid

waste over the whole country since in Belgium there are a many private company that

responsible for handling and transport the solid waste.


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Both India and Belgium the private company which responsible for waste management,

which sustain a closed involved with public sector, every action was regulated by the public

sector, such ask the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Ministry of Tourism, and Ministry

of Education etc. Otherwise, Cambodia has a less involved from the public sector on how

to manage solid waste management. It does not hold a strict law to find or punish the one

who drop or throw the waste along the public place yet while Belgium has a strict law on

the waste management both on household and public place.

Moreover, in Belgium they have a clear categorize solid waste by waste bin color, people

can put the solid waste with its corresponding color one. They are not allowed to put the

waste into the incorrect color, then it will be find or illegal for that person. By doing this it

makes an easier for the company which responsible for handling and transport solid waste

to recycle or directly place it in landfill. This situation also exists in India, but in India they

do not have many waste bin color as in Belgium they only two colors of the waste bin, they

are blue and green bin. They store it in two main places, Waste Storage Depot (WSD) and

Street Corner Bins (SCBs). WSD is a place where everyone can throw their solid waste

both wet and dry waste. The dry waste can put into the blue bin that enable workers to

segment or manually categorize by hand the recyclable waste then take it to the factory and

the unrecyclable waste are go to landfill. It is quick different from the above two countries,

in Cambodia there is only one kind of solid waste bin. It is in green color. It means that

everyone can put or throw them in this bin without make decision which waste should be

put in the correct waste bin. As they have only one kind of waste bin, every solid waste

was not categorized or divided to recyclable waste. The waste that was through by everyone

was directly transported to the landfill. The waste that has been through away in the landfill


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was picked by the waste picker. They bring the solid waste to sale for waste depot. At the

waste depot they have many kinds of solid waste that they have bought from waste picker.

They have categorized these solid waste then bring it into a factory to recycle.

Among this three countries, only the Belgium country are most care about the solid waste

recycling, then the India country which also take care about the recyclable waste by

categorize waste by hand at the waste depot. However, Cambodia does not have any policy

or activity that use to recycling the waste yet, we only see the waste picker picked the waste

at the landfill and sell it to waste depot. In short we can say that both Belgium and India,

they have a great deal of recycling occurs before the waste reaches the landfill.

According to this comparison, we can make a conclusion that both Belgium and India people

understand how to sustainable solid waste by recycling. However, in Cambodia till 2012, we

haven’t seen any process to recycle solid waste bedside dispose directly to the landfill.

Furthermore, there is not available land space to cast aside the solid waste since now the world

worry about the landfills spacing.

ANALYSIS OF THE PRO’S AND THE CON’S

We are going to discuss about the advantage and disadvantage of the sustainable local solid waste

management in four different pillars: economics, society, philosophy, and technology.

Before we are going to discuss the relevant of sustainable local waste management to economic,

we must define the definition of economic first. Economics is the social science that studies the

behavior of individuals, households, and organizations (called economic actors, players, or

agents), when they manage or use scarce resources, which have alternative uses, to achieve desired

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_science

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity


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ends (Wikipedia). What is the advantage of sustainable local waste management in form of

economic? In economic point of view increase more income and employment. How the income

and employment come? It is particularly simple. First, local job creation. All kind of solid waste

collection and transportation companies do not require the higher education staff to work in their

company. This is a good opportunity for the person who did not attended the school to get the job.

Moreover, the company need all kind of staff start from the uneducated staff till the high

knowledge staff. For instance, the uneducated staff can work as a waste picker or street sweeping.

For the high knowledge staff they can work at the recycling factory such as technical mechanic

who expert on machine to reproduce the new resource from solid waste. When have a lot jobs in

the local region or local country the migration to work the second or third country will be no more

exist. There are many people who illegal migration to other country to find a job, it will take them

into the risk state of living or working at the entry country. So if the in the local place where they

live afford enough job for them, they are not going to work at the other country. They will be enjoy

to live with their family. Second, have a clean environment or we can say that it will be protected

environment. Since everyone want to live with the fresh and clean environment, it will be benefit

to everyone who living with the clean environment. It will not effect to their health when they live

with the clean environment. It imply reduce the cost of health insurance or go to meet doctor

regularly. In addition, for the tourism place will increase the number of tourism that come to visit

the clean and fresh environment. The people who live nearby the tourism place can get the

advantage from this by selling the tour souvenir or afford transportation service such as tuk tuk or

taxi to bring the tourism visit the tour place. Another foremost benefit or recycling is that it helps

in protecting the environment in the most balanced manner. While many trees are cut down

continually, recycled paper made from certain trees is re-used repeatedly to minimize felling/


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deforestation. With re-cycled paper as an outstanding example, a number of other natural resources

can be reused this way.

Belong to the advantages we mention above, there are also have some disadvantages with

sustainable local SWM, first, as everyone know Cambodia is a developing country, its economy

is depending on Agriculture to grow up their economies. The recycling process will not be an

advantage of the economy since every product or raw material they import from other country. We

did not examine the recycling factory which have the high technology exist in Cambodia so far.

Most of recycling waste they always export to another country to reproduce it again in the form of

raw material or final product. Moreover, beside the agriculture sector we can see many garment

factories exist over the country. Most of the uneducated people can work in thosefactories in order

to earn a better salary than work at a waste collection company.

Society is a group of people involved in persistent interpersonal relationships, or a large social

grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political

authority and dominant cultural expectations (Wikipedia). Why the sustainable local solid waste

management in the perspective of social? Social a group of people who live together and

communicate each other. First, important benefit is supporting local workers of the

community/society. Everyone have a good communication to each other and share the same

opportunity to earn profit from the company’s owner. The poor people will happy to live with a

few benefit that they can get from the richer by hired them to work with their quality of education.

The living standard gap between the richer and poorer is not too high. It is good idea that the public

or private sector concern or take it into account about the uneducated people to get involved to

work in their community/society where they live. Moreover, when they have a legal job to do in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_relationship


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their society it will reduce the amount of criminal, murder, and theft in their society. In addition,

in the whole social they will give the value to uneducated people who working on solid waste

collection and transportation since they are the main power to recycle every wastes that have been

thrown away by everyone and they never think it will benefit to them again.There are not more

discriminate against waste picker or street garbage clearance in the community/society.

Now we are going to discuss about disadvantage of sustainable local SWM in society. While the

company owner becomes richer and the worker still poor in the social, it will bring the society to

be in turmoil situation. In a case in the Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia, the waste collection

company always gets the advantage of the poor worker. They always hired the poor worker to

work in their company with a small amount of salary and they don’t include any food or health

insurance for all those poorworkers. With a large gap between these two groups of people will give

the bad effect in the social, the best way to have a good social all the people should share the same

benefit.The employee should not get much benefit from employer, then the employer will satisfy

with profit that they earn to survive in the society with a better living standard.

In term of philosophy, let us consider about the intergeneration justice. What is Intergeneration

justice concern about? It is about the activity of this generation will give to the next generation.

Why sustainable local solid waste management relevant to intergeneration justice? It is very

important that everyone in this generation must take care about the limit resource that can be

disappeared in the short period of time. It good that they try to substitute or recycle the rare product.

There are many advantage of sustainable solid waste management in term of philosophy. First, the

rare product or material will be exist for the current and next generation. For example, as we

already known Aluminum (AL) is the rare material that can be disappeared in the future. By


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recycling the solid waste that can substitute the raw AL material, then it will reduce the use of AL

in the factory or manufacture. Second, it is guarantee a sustainable environment. The solid waste

is the source to make water pollution, create CO2 in the air, and damage the soil etc. When there

is not more solid waste exist in the water, land, and everywhere this kind of problem will not occur.

Let consider the Industrial waste today is the main source of all types of pollution as mention

above. Recycling of industrial products such as cans, chemical, plastics helps to cut down pollution

levels considerably, as these materials are re-used, instead of throwing them away irresponsibly.

Recycling promotes intergeneration justice and sustainable use of resources. This operation

assures that there is no discrimination use of any material when available in plenty at the present.

Recycling is encouraged at all levels, starting from school to corporate offices and at international

levels. This means we can preserve all precious resources for our future generation, without any

compromise in the present. As far as the recycling dramatically increase, the more information you

know about the issue the better choice you make for your health and to the earth. The present

generation about the important from the sustainable local solid waste management and matter for

low cultivation can help them to cultivate their own reproduction waste and pass it to the future

generation that helping the present and the future generation to live in the most sustainable

environment.

However, there are also exist the disadvantage in the point of view of Philosophy, as currently

most of Cambodia people are uneducated, they don’t knowabout how to manage their waste

included in their household. Sometime they burn or throw the waste into water without knowing

the effect of those wastes to air or water. They don’t know how to categorize waste by the color

code of waste bag or bin. They also don’t know the kind of waste are going to berecycled at the

manufacture in the form of raw or substitute material. The scarce resource is going to destroy by


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the current generation. It is not fair for the next generation as they was born inthe country which

every rare resource are going to be disappeared that the world are concerned about. The next

generation will get nothing from the current generation as they don’t take care much about the

ways on how to recycle the solid waste.

Before we are going to discuss about the advantage of sustainable local solid waste management

in term of technology. We should know what is technology and sustainable technology.

Technology is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques,

crafts, systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a pre-existing

solution to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific

function(Wikipedia). Sustainable Technologies is comprised of environmental professionals

sharing the common goal of improving the urban environment by creating alternatives for a

sustainable future4. Belong with technology there are many advantages of sustainable local SWM,

first of all, recycling can reduces energy consumption. A large amount of energy was consumed

by processing raw materials at the time of manufacture. Recycling helps to minimize energy

consumption, which is all important for massive production, such mining or refining. This too

establishes the production process very cost-effective and beneficial for manufacturers. Second,

recycling can reduces greenhouse gases emissions. Garbage is a major contributor to global

warming. Solid waste landfills are the single largest man-made source of methane gas in the United

States. Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas that is 23 times more effective at trapping

heat in the atmosphere than the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2). Every time

4 See http://sustech.cc/wordpress/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System


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you "throw away," you are contributing to global warming. Recycling reduces more pollution,

saves more energy and reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions more than any other activity

besides source reduction. Recycling reduces GHG emissions in two important ways. First,

recycling keeps materials out of the landfill. Landfills are designed to be anaerobic, meaning that

once waste has been dumped, very little air remains below the surface. Landfill gas is generated

as a byproduct of the digestion of organic materials by organisms that thrive in these anaerobic

conditions. Food waste, paper, grass, and other organic matter is readily digested and turned into

landfill gas, which is 50 percent methane. While most modern landfills are required to capture

some of their methane emissions, significant quantities continue to escape into the

atmosphere. Second, recycling reduces GHG emissions by reducing the need to continually mine

and refine virgin resources for product production. Every day, consumer products such as

aluminum soda cans are made from resources mined from the earth, transported great distances,

and eventually processed with industrial machinery requiring massive energy inputs. This all

results in significant GHG emissions. A recent California Department of Conservation report

found that using recycled aluminum from soda cans requires only 5 to 8 percent of the energy

required to produce primary aluminum, which results in a 95% reduction of GHG emissions as

compared to primary production. Utilizing recycled plastic saves 70% of the energy otherwise

needed for production, and utilizing recycled glass saves 30% of the energy otherwise needed for

production.

CONCLUSION

I strongly have to admit that recycling project do make a great substitution to the reproduction of

rare material in order to reduce energy consumption and conservation of the world environment.

A closer look to Belgium, most of citizens in this country understand well about recycling and its


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benefits. They know how to recycle their solid waste by startingfrom managing waste in their

household. Nevertheless, in Cambodia, most of people do not recognize how to take the advantage

from solid waste and they also don’t recognize what kind of solid waste should be recyclable in

the manufacture. They just make a wrong assumption that every waste that they dispose are directly

to landfill. This project is not feasible because it is not easy to convince people in society to do

such project. It depend on how much the quality of knowledge on the country which have this kind

of project. Most of people in developing country, they do not know the waste that they dispose can

reuse or reproduce again in the factory. They always think that it is a waste it will directly to

landfill. When everyone know the advantage of the solid waste, they will try to manage their waste

since some solid waste produce the profitable income. The most important, it is guarantee a

sustainable environment. The education is really important for all kind of people who live in the

society on how to manage and recycling their solid waste. On the other hand, this project is

desirable in term of sustainability. It is good for the next generation.

REFERENCE

Mok Mareth. (2009) Cambodia Environment Outlook. Retrieved from

http://geodata.rrcap.unep.org/all_reports/cambodia_081010.pdf

Sarun Sambo. (Japan, 01 November, 2006) Current Status Of Waste ManagementIn Cambodia.

Retrieved from http://www.env.go.jp/recycle/3r/en/asia/02_03-1/09.pdf

Sour Sethy. (Okayama, 2 February, 2013). Solid Waste Management in Cambodia. Retrieved

from http://www.ambiente.okayama-u.ac.jp/management/up_load_files/ gakkan/

2012_en/ 2012_en_3-13.pdf

Ranjith Kharvel Annepu. (January 10, 2012) Sustainable Solid Waste Management in India.

Retrieved from

http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Sustainable%20Solid%20Waste%20Man

agement%20in%20India_Final.pdf

http://www.env.go.jp/recycle/3r/en/asia/02_03-1/09.pdf


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Papiya Sarkar. (15-17 December, 2003)Solid Waste Management In Delhi –A Social

Vulnerability Study. Retrieved from

http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Sarkar_SWM%20in%20Delhi%20-%20

A%20Social%20Vulnerability%20Study.pdf

Ankur Garg, Varun Kumar and Vaibhav Verma. (5 - 7 September, 2007). Public Private

Partnership for Solid Waste Management in Delhi. Retrieved from

http://www.swlf.ait.ac.th/IntlConf/Data/ICSSWM%20web/FullPaper/Session%20IX/9_0

7%20_Ankur%20Garg.pdf

Emmanuel C. Gentil. (February 2013). Municipal waste management in Belgium. Retrieved from

http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/managing-municipal-solid-waste/belgium-

municipal-waste-management

The Effects of Plastic Bags on Environment. (21 April, 2014) Retrieved from

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/14901/1/The-Effects-of-Plastic-Bags-on-

Environment.html.

CINTRI (CAMBODIA) LTD. (22 May, 2014). Retrieved from

http://www.cintri.com.kh/PHP/WastTransportation.php.

Sustainability - Wikipedia. (22 April, 2014) Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability.

Center for Sustainability & Commerce at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy

Solutions. (21 April, 2014). Retrieved from

http://center.sustainability.duke.edu/resources/green-facts-consumers/how-much-do-we-

waste-daily.

Waste and sustainable cities. (19 May, 2014) Retrieved from

http://www.dac.dk/en/dac-cities/sustainable-cities/background-articles/waste-and-

sustainable-cities/

Converse Energy Future. (20 May, 2014) Retrieved from

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-recycling.php

Campaign for Recycling. (25 May, 2014) Retrieved from

http://www.campaignforrecycling.org/faq/ghg

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-recycling.php

http://www.campaignforrecycling.org/faq/ghg

Sustainable Local Solid Waste Management

Documents

pounds waste

groups of waste

kilogram of waste

unrecyclable waste

waste bin

plastic bag waste

local waste management

forms of waste municipal