Promoting a green circular economy in waste management

Context

The burden of rapidly rising volumes of solid waste in Cambodia is placing excessive strain on waste management. Every day 11,500 tonnes of waste are generated, with 3,800 tonnes in Phnom Penh alone. In combination with inadequate disposal methods such as landfilling and uncontrolled burning, this is causing serious environmental and health problems.

The Circular Strategy on Environment 2023–2028 serves the government as a roadmap for environmentally friendly waste management. However, technical, administrative and individual skills to implement the strategy are lacking.

Objective

Principles of an environmentally friendly circular economy have been integrated into Cambodia’s waste management system at both national and regional level.

Approach

The project cooperates with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, municipal authorities, private businesses and civil society. It has three fields of activity:

1. Developing capacities of state actors: the project improves the capacities of ministries, local authorities and relevant partner institutions. Training courses, advisory services and technical support are designed to help them implement policies and strategies of the circular economy.
2. Improving municipal coordination: the project defines the waste management tasks in selected cities. This includes improving data collection, developing local recycling strategies and optimising cooperation between authorities and businesses.
3. Introducing measures to treat organic waste: the project implements pilot measures for the separate collection and utilisation of organic waste. Measures include informal waste collections and pay due regard to gender-appropriate approaches.

Last update: February 2025