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Municipal solid waste management in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia

Bunrith Seng, Hidehiro Kaneko, Kimiaki Hirayama and Keiko Katayama-Hirayama
Waste Manag Res 2011 29: 491 originally published online 2 September 2010
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X10380994

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Research Article
Waste Management & Research
29(5) 491–500

Municipal solid waste management in ! The Author(s) 2010

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Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia DOI: 10.1177/0734242X10380994
wmr.sagepub.com

Bunrith Seng, Hidehiro Kaneko, Kimiaki Hirayama and

Keiko Katayama-Hirayama

Abstract
This paper presents an overview of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) for both technical and regulatory arrange-
ments in the municipality of Phnom Penh (MPP), Cambodia. Problems with the current MSWM are identified, and chal-
lenges and recommendations for future improvement are also given in this paper. MPP is a small city with a total area of
approximately 374 km2 and an urban population of about 1.3 million in 2008. For the last 14 years, average annual municipal
solid waste (MSW) generated in MPP has increased rapidly from 0.136 million tons in 1995 to 0.361 million tons in 2008. The
gross generation rate of MSW per capita was 0.74 kg day1. However, the per capita household waste generation was 0.487 kg
day1. At 63.3%, food waste is the predominant portion of generated waste, followed by plastics (15.5%), grass and wood
(6.8%), and paper and cardboard (6.4%). The remaining waste, including metals, glass, rubber/leather, textiles, and ceramic/
stone, accounted for less than 3%. Waste recycling through informal sectors is very active; recycled waste accounted for about
9.3% of all waste generated in 2003. Currently, the overall technical arrangement, including storage and discharge, collection
and transport, and disposal, is still in poor condition, which leads to environmental and health risks. These problems should
be solved by improving legislation, environmental education, solid waste management facilities, and management of the waste
scavengers.

Keywords
Municipal solid waste, solid waste management, urban waste characteristics, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, scavenging, informal
sector, public awareness
Date received: 4 January 2010; accepted: 13 July 2010

seem to be the major challenges for improving the MSWM in

Introduction
Solid waste management (SWM) is a major challenge in
urban area throughout the world, particularly in the fast-
growing cities and towns of the developing world (Jin
et al., 2006). In conjunction with the creation of economic
growth, vast population increase, urbanization and industri-
alization, and excessive consumption of modern daily life, a
large quantity of waste is generated. With such a high quan-
tity of generated waste, proper SWM is becoming increas-
ingly difficult. The Municipality of Phnom Penh (MPP),
capital city of Cambodia, is presently faced with serious envi-
ronmental and administrative challenges in providing proper
municipal solid waste management (MSWM).
Currently, MSWM in MPP is neither sanitary nor envi-
ronmentally acceptable. The improper operations are due to
a number of factors, such as technical, economic, sociocul-
tural, political, and legal, as well as a lack of availability of
resources. Legal system arrangements and human resources
MPP (JICA, 2005; Kum et al., 2005). According to Kum
et al. (2005) and a recent field survey, information sharing
among the concerned agencies is limited, which may lead to
the duplication of efforts on the same task. In addition, infor-
mation on MSWM is extremely limited, and the available
information is not complete or is scattered around the vari-
ous agencies concerned. Therefore it is extremely difficult to
gain an insight into the complex problem of MSWM in the
area. The aim of the present paper was to gather the available
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Interdisciplinary
Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of
Yamanashi, Japan.
Corresponding author:
Bunrith Seng, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Interdisciplinary Graduated School of Medicine and Engineering,
University of Yamanashi, 4-3-11, Takeda, Kofu 400-8511, Japan
Email: g08dea02@yamanashi.ac.jp

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492
information from a variety of sources, including published
reports of government agencies, non-governmental organiza-
tions (NGOs), and universities, for both technical and regu-
latory arrangements. The problems associated with current
MSWM have been identified, and challenges and recommen-
dations for future improvement are given.
Methods
Study area
The study was conducted in Phnom Penh, the capital city of
Cambodia. The municipality of Phnom Penh is divided into
eight districts and 76 communes. The total area of MPP is
about 374 km2, of which 7.2% is described as urban area and
92.8% is rural. The total population in 2008 was around 1.3
million people with an average population density of 4571
person km2 and an average household size of 5.1.
Data collection
The data describing the quantities of municipal solid waste
(MSW), population, and GDP cover from 1994 to 2008.
The waste generation data was collected from three available
sources; the Ministry of Environment (MoE), Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and a published
paper (Kum et al., 2005). The population and GDP data
were collected from the National Institute of Statistics,
Ministry of Planning (MoP). The other related information,
such as environmental law, and solid waste regulations and
announcements, were collected from MoE and the
Department of Environment of MPP, whereas information
about the overall technical arrangement of MSWM was
obtained through interviews with the key informants of
CINTRI, the private firm responsible for the collection ser-
vice, and Phnom Penh Waste Management (PPWM), the
responsible authority for SWM in MPP.
Results and discussion
Basic information of municipal solid waste
management in Phnom Penh
History of municipal solid waste management
in Phnom Penh: Over the last three decades, MSWM in
MPP has changed many times due to the country’s instabil-
ities and financial difficulties. Before 1970 solid waste in
Phnom Penh was not seen to be a problem because the pop-
ulation within the city was relatively small, being around 0.39
million people in 1962 (MPP, 2009). After 1970 the popula-
tion started to increase rapidly, but it was immediately
reduced to almost none during the civil war (1975–1979).
There was then almost no waste generated in MPP because
citizens were chased out of the city by Khmer Rouge forces
to live and farm in rural areas.
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Waste Management & Research 29(5)
After the war, MSWM was the responsibility of the
Department of Public Work and Transport (DPWT) of the
MPP until 1994. The municipal cleansing section under
DPWT provided an MSWM service. As a result of the lack
of MSWM regulation, most household waste was commonly
burned, buried, or dumped in residents’ backyards or in low-
lying areas; only market waste was collected and dumped in
the open, in an area regarded as an open dump. With high
population density and less available land for waste dis-
charge, solid waste was unsanitarily disposed of in public
areas. As a result, numerous complaints arose, and the
city’s beauty was degraded. MSWM consequently became
difficult work for DPWT.
Since then, with the extreme limited capability for
MSWM, MPP entrusted its MSWM service mainly to private
contractors with franchise agreements. The private contrac-
tors could recover their operation and waste disposal cost
through a monthly collection fee from people who benefit
from the provision of the service. However, the service
providers have changed six times, mainly due to financial
difficulties (Figure 1); these were presumably because of
unclear tipping fee criteria, fee collection efficiency, resident’s
willingness to pay for a solid waste collection service and
other factors. In 2001, the PPWM authority was established
to responsible for the solid waste business in the city, includ-
ing collection and disposal of solid waste, contracting out
these services, monitoring the performance of service
providers, and taking over operations of the disposal site
(Khunchhun, 2007). CINTRI was the latest private firm
starting its service in 2002. At the beginning of the
CINTRI contract, MSWM was seen to improve in terms of
collection service. However, the performance was weak in the
following year.
By early 2003, a master plan for MSWM in MPP was set
out with the support of JICA for the target year 2015. To meet
the master plan objectives, by mid-October 2006, a project on
the strengthening of solid waste management for the munici-
pality of Phnom Penh was implemented as a continuous
project from the master plan. The main objective of the project
is to strengthen PPWMs capacity for proper management
and control of collection and final disposal of waste.
Unfortunately, JICA decided to terminate this project in
March 2008 because the preconditions set by JICA were not
met (JICA, 2008); The first condition was to modify the con-
tract with CINTRI to extend PPWM’s waste collection service
area (from a small area of around 3000 households to 18 com-
munes in the suburban area), and the second condition was to
modify the contract with CINTRI for a revision of the tipping
fee to secure the appropriate operation cost. Since then, due to
financial difficulties and lack of technical support from JICA,
PPWM could not expand collection service to suburban areas.
Finally, PPWM decided to entrust totally the collection ser-
vice in the entire MPP area to CINTRI, whereas landfill man-
agement is still the responsibility of PPWM. On 20 July 2009,
Seng et al.
Figure 1. History of MSWM service providers in MPP.
the new sanitary landfill was put into operation, while the old
dumping site was closed.
Institutional arrangement and legislation: A
small number of ministries are partially concerned with
MSWM. At the national level, MoE is the main body respon-
sible for establishing proper guidelines and supervising their
execution, and the Ministry of Health (MoH), MoP, and
Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) are involved in
medical institution waste management, planning, and finan-
cial approval, respectively. However, the implementation of
MSWM, including collection, transport, storage, recycling,
minimizing, and disposal of waste, is the responsibility of
local authorities, the cities and provinces. The current con-
cerned agencies and their responsibilities in MSWM practices
from national to municipal level are shown in Figure 2.
In Cambodia, an environmental law, the Act on
Environmental Protection and Natural Resource
Management, was established and put into force in 1996
(MoE, 2005). The overall goal of this law is to protect and
improve the environment in order to prevent environmental
and public health risks, and to maintain sustainable
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493
development of natural resources. To meet the objectives of
the environmental law, sub-decrees and declarations have
subsequently been developed and enacted. These are the
sub-decrees and declarations related to SWM.
. Sub-decree on solid waste management (27 April 1999).
. Declaration on the provision of duties to carry out the
sub-decree on water pollution control and sub-decree on
SWM for urban and provincial environmental depart-
ments (2 June 1999).
. Declaration on the enforcement of the sub-decree on
SWM (20 September 1999).
. Declaration on industrial hazardous-waste management
(26 May 2000).
. Declaration on SWM of industries, factories, and compa-
nies (16 January 2003).
. Declaration on urban and provincial SWM (25 February
2003).
According to the sub-decree on SWM, solid waste in
Cambodia has been divided into two categories: non-hazar-
dous waste (NHW) and hazardous waste (HW). However, it
494 Waste Management & Research 29(5)

Establishing National level

policy and
guidelines on MoE MoH Medical institution
SWM Dept. of solid waste
Monitoring and environmental Dept. of hospital management
supervising SWM pollution control
execution
Providing license
and technical
Municipal level
assistance to
private firms for
proper solid MPP
waste treatment

Report submmission (every 3 months)

Medical institution
Similar role to solid waste
DoE DPWT DoH management in
MoE at the
municipal level MPP

Waste collection
PPWM and disposal
Monitoring
private firms
Landfill site
management
Collection and
transport Private firms
Public cleansing CINTRI

Abbreviation

Dept: Department DPWT: Department of Public Work and

MoE: Ministry of Environment Transport
MoH: Ministry of Health DoH: Department of Health
MPP: Municipality of Phnom Penh PPWM: Phnom Penh Waste Management
DoE: Department of Environment

Figure 2. System of MSW institutional arrangements.

has been seen that specific descriptions as well as detailed
regulations and guidelines have not been well developed
(Heisler, 2004; JICA, 2005); this makes management work
difficult. In the case of MPP, NHW management is the
responsibility of PPWM through CINTRI services, whereas
HW is mainly the responsibility of private firms.
Municipal solid waste generation
composition: Data on MSW generation is available
only from 1994 because the ministry responsible, MoE, was
only established in 1993. The basic information on MSW
generation, GDP, and population are presented in Table 1.
Referring to the MSW generation data from 1994 to 2002
from MoE, it was seen not to be realistic; the amount of
waste generation was too low (the per capita waste genera-
tion rate was around 0.05 kg day1). This was not because
less waste was being generated but due to low collection effi-
ciency and data management. However, after 2003, a weigh-
ing bridge was installed at the landfill site, which made the
data on waste generation reliable. Hereafter, for further anal-
ysis the data of waste generation from Kum et al. (2005) and
MoE is used for the early and later years, respectively.
The annual amount of MSW generated in MPP
has increased significantly for the last few decades, from
0.136 million tons in 1995 to 0.361 million tons in 2008, and
it was estimated to be 0.635 million tons in 2015 (JICA, 2005).
This rapid growth in waste generation was attributed to rapid
population increase and economic development. The MPP
population was 0.812 million in 1994 and quickly increased
to 1.326 million by 2008. The average annual growth rate in
the city is 3.57%, which is higher than that of the whole coun-
and try (2.29%). GDP, an economic development index, slowly
increased from 1994 to 2003 overall. However, it started to
increase significantly from 2003 to 2008 with a per capita aver-
age annual growth rate of 22.84%.
In terms of the total amount of MSW generated in
MPP, the largest portion was attributed to household
waste (62.9%), whereas office waste was the smallest portion
(0.1%). The distribution of MSW generation from various
sources is shown in Figure 3, and the flow of MSWM prac-
tices is presented in Figure 4. In terms of per capita MSW
generation, the value calculated using data from the master
plan study in 2003 was around 0.74 kg day1. However, per
capita household waste generation was found to be 0.487 kg
day1. For comparison, the per capita MSW generation of
various countries in the region is presented in Table 2.
The waste composition in MPP has changed greatly over
the last decade (Table 3). Food and plastic waste changed

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Seng et al. 495

Table 1. Population, GDP and amount of waste generated from 1994 to 2008

Year Populationa (million) GDPb Amount of waste (tons year1)

c d e
Cambodia MPP MPP Annual US$ US$ Exchange rate
growth rate (%) (million) capita1 (Riels US$1)

1994 9.752 0.812 2760 247 2570 14 500

1995 10.148 0.855 3420 297 2467 136 388 14 548
1996 10.560 0.901 3481 295 2640 143 103 15 264
1997 10.990 0.949 3387 281 2991 142 536 15 203
1998 11.436 1.000 5.3 3105 253 3774 169 111 18 038
1999 11.656 1.007 3515 282 3814 191 625 20 440
2000 11.881 1.014 3651 288 3859 219 000 20 702
2001 12.110 1.022 3970 308 3924 21 050
2002 12.344 1.029 4276 326 3921 21 367
2003 12.581 1.037 4591 345 3975 240 859 253 569
2004 12.824 1.044 0.7 5265 389 4016 227 910 261 457
2005 12.963 1.108 6278 454 4092 266 781 283 076
2006 13.103 1.177 7265 513 4103 324 159 328 902
2007 13.245 1.249 8332 575 4075 343 657 343 742
2008 13.389 1.326 6.2 10 339 739 – 361 344 355 561
a
MoP (2008).
b
MoP (2006) and MoP (2008).
c
Kum et al. (2005).
d
MoE (2004) and additional data provided by MoE staff from 2003 to 2008.
e
JICA, (2008).

Schools Hotels
0.8% Street sweeping 0.3%
Offices
0.3% 0.1%
Commercial
(Restaurants)
Other
5.0%
4.0%

Markets
10.2%

Commercial
(Other shops)
Households
16.3%
62.9%

Figure 3. Sources and distribution of MSW generation.

remarkably from 1999 to 2003, whereas the remaining com-
ponents saw minor changes. Food waste has always made up
the largest portion, 87% in 1999 and 63.3% in 2003. This
high percentage is common in developing countries, with
similar numbers reported in the Kathmandu Valley of
Nepal (70%), Sri Lanka (66%), and Rasht city, Iran
(80.2%). However, it is very different from developed coun-
tries such as England (20.2%), Japan (9.8 and 6.5% in
Yokohama and Osaka, respectively), and the United States
(12.5%). Plastic waste made up the second largest portion,
which dramatically increased from 6% in 1999 to 15.5% in
2003, a 2.6-fold increase. This figure is relatively high in

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496 Waste Management & Research 29(5)

Self-disposal

Illegal dumping

Household waste Discharge for Disposal site

MSW collection
generation
All business waste

Recycling

Recycling
Recycling Recycling

Figure 4. Flow chart of MSW in Phnom Penh.

Table 2. Per capita MSW generation and its composition in various countries

Country MSW generation Major waste component (%) Reference

(kg day1capita1)
Food Plastics Paper Metals Glass Other

United States 2.09 12.5 12.1 32.7 8.2 5.3 29.2 USEPA (2008)
European Union 1.51 27.5 7.0 26.0 4.0 6.0 29.5 Troschinetz and Mihelcic (2009)
Japan (Tokyo) 1.08 31.3 7.8 44.5 1.2 1.1 14.1 MAFF 2006; Sakai (1996)
Vietnam (Hanoi) 1.0 49.1 15.6 1.9 6.0 7.2 20.2 World Bank (2004)
Singapore 0.96 38.8 5.8 20.6 3.2 1.1 30.5 Bai and Satanto (2002)
Mexico 0.917 52.4 4.4 14.1 2.9 5.9 20.3 Buenrostro and Bacco (2003)
China (Beijing) 0.85 63.4 12.7 11.1 0.3 1.8 10.8 Zhen-shan et al. (2009)
Iran (Rasht) 0.8 80.2 9.0 8.7 0.7 0.2 1.2 Moghadam et al. (2009)
Cambodia 0.74 63.3 15.5 6.4 0.6 1.2 13.0 JICA (2005)
Nepal (Kathmandu 0.565 70.0 9.5 8.5 – 2.5 9.5 Pokhrel and Viraraghavan (2005)
Valley)
India (Delhi) 0.5 38.6 6.0 5.6 0.2 1.0 48.6 Talyan et al. (2008)
Sri Lanka 0.26 66.0 8.0 13.0 3.0 2.0 8.0 Vidanaarachchi et al. (2006)
England – 20.2 10.2 33.2 7.3 9.3 19.8 Burnley (2007)

comparison with many other regions such as India,
Singapore, and the United States. However, it is similar to
Japan (14.8% in Yokohama and 20.3% in Osaka) and
Vietnam. This high proportion of plastics is probably attrib-
utable to product wrapping and packaging. Paper and card-
board showed a slowly increasing trend whereas metal, glass
and rubber/leather were decreasing. The decrease of metal,
glass, and rubber/leather were probably due to a high recy-
cling rate. More comparisons of waste composition are also
presented in Table 2.
Technical arrangements of municipal solid
waste management in Phnom Penh
Municipal solid waste storage
discharge: The MSW storage and discharge practices
have changed over the last few decades from traditional
methods of burning, burying, or dumping in low lying
areas to discharging for collection and disposal. These
changes are probably because of the fast growth of popula-
tion and urbanization, which result in no more land being
available for individual disposal or open burning. However,
minor illegal dumping and individual disposal still exist, par-
ticularly in suburban areas.
Currently, no uniform waste storage bins have been intro-
duced in MPP. Generally, household waste is stored in plas-
tic bags (mainly reused plastic bags); restaurants, hotels, and
shops usually use their own bins or containers of various
sizes together with or without plastic bags for on-site storage
prior to discharge; and industrial waste is commonly kept in
and haulage containers prior to collection. In public areas such as
gardens, parks, and along the roads, MPP in collaboration

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Seng et al.
Table 3. Typical composition of MSW in Phnom Penh
Composition (%) 1999a 2002b
Food/organic 87 65
Plastic 6 13.2
Paper and Cardboard 3 3.8
Grass and Wood – –
Glass 1 4.9
Metal 1 1
Rubber, Leather – 0.6
Textile – –
Ceramic and Stone – –
Other 2 11.5
a
MoE, 2004.
b
Kum et al., 2005.
c
JICA, 2005.
with CINTRI has placed public garbage bins of various
types for temporary storage of small amounts of waste in
order to prevent littering and to improve the cleanliness of
the city.
The waste generated is collected in different ways from
one place to another according to the collection service pro-
vided (details on collection services are given in the ‘collec-
tion and transport’ section). Generally, kerbside and bell
collection are the common collection practices for household
waste. Therefore, residents are required to bring out their
waste after the collection vehicle gives a signal – the sound
of the vehicle’s horn – on its arrival. Waste containers with a
capacity of about 0.6 m3 were also provided in many places
throughout the city, particularly in active places such as mar-
kets, hospitals, and populated areas.
Many problems have been found with the current collec-
tion practices. First, there is inconsistency in collection times.
With kerbside and bell collection, residents are not always
available to bring out their waste. In addition, the irregular
schedules of the collection trucks make the situation worse,
leading to illegal disposal of waste along the streets. Second,
due to the small 0.6 m3 containers provided and low collec-
tion frequency, waste is commonly seen to overflow. Third,
illegal garbage heaps on pavements, on unused land, or even
in the middle of the street are common in many parts of the
city; this is because of irregular collection schedules, low res-
idential awareness, and/or weak waste disposal regulations.
Consequently, these garbage heaps are scattered by scaven-
gers looking for valuable materials for recycling, and by dogs
looking for food. Fourth, the small public garbage bins
installed along the main roads, gardens, and parks are
becoming dumping points where people dispose of their
waste. Fifth, open burning of household waste, tree leaves,
and garden waste mixed with plastic bags is done by some
households, resulting in air pollution and public health prob-
lems. Last but not least, some people dispose of their waste
into the drainage system, which results in the system
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497
becoming clogged. Hence, there is an urgent need to improve
2003c
current waste disposal practices in order to make the city
cleaner and more environmentally sound.
63.3
15.5 Municipal solid waste collection and
6.4 transport: Since October 2009, the waste collection
6.8 service in MPP is completely provided by CINTRI. The col-
1.2 lection service provided mainly covers the city’s urban and
0.6 peri-urban areas, which account for 58 out of 76 communes
0.1 (CINTRI, 2009). In terms of population, the service coverage
2.5 is seen to have slowly improved; it was estimated to be
1.5 around 60% in 2003 (JICA, 2005) and 82.1% in 2009 (per-
2.1 sonal communication with Mr. Som Hun, Sub-Head
Operation office, CINTRI, 2009). Collection schedule and
frequency were set differently from one place to another.
Overall, four urban districts, 41 communes in the centre of
MPP, have been provided with a daily collection service
while the remaining peri-urban areas were provided with col-
lections three times a week. In addition to this, a collection
service operates in the market areas every day over the entire
area of the MPP. Until now, there has been no source sepa-
ration introduced in MPP. All household waste compositions
are mixed and disposed of together with many other kinds of
waste from various sources, but excluding hazardous waste.
Waste for disposal, as described previously, is collected by
many means, defined by the JICA study team in 2003 as
kerbside and bell collection, heap collection, container col-
lection, primary/secondary collection, and communal
collection point. These practices have continued until
recent years.
Although various collection services are provided,
collection efficiency has been seen to remain low. This is
due to the weakness of the collection systems and the
urban infrastructure. Many areas with poor road access
have not received an adequate collection service. On the
other hand, the available service areas have suffered from
irregular collection times caused by frequent breakdowns of
collection trucks and slowdowns of waste disposal at the
landfills. In Phnom Penh, there are no transfer stations; the
solid waste collected is transported directly to disposal sites,
as they are not located far from the city, the distances
being approximately 5 km from the city centre for the
Steung Mean Chey disposal site and 10 km for the Dorng
Kor Landfill site. In short, collection systems need to be
upgraded in terms of collection facilities, collection sched-
ules, and overall arrangements to be consistent with proper
discharge regulations.
Municipal solid waste disposal: Steung Mean Chey
disposal site (SMCDS), with a total area of 6.8 ha, was the
only landfill that had been operating since 1965, a total of
almost 44 years,. Usually, collected waste from almost every
source, except hazardous waste, was disposed of at the
SMCDS without intermittent treatment or waste sorting.
498 Waste Management & Research 29(5)

The operation of the landfill was in poor conditions and had Paper and metal are the major recycling materials, account-
become known as an open dump site. By 2003, with the sup- ing for 40.3 and 20.9%, respectively. The food waste recy-
port of the JICA study team, overall SMCDS operations had cling rate was low, at 1.6%, and was recovered mainly
been improved greatly. The SMCDS was scheduled for clo- through composting. The recycling amount for each type
sure in 2007 when a new sanitary landfill, the Dorng Kor of waste is presented in Table 4.
landfill site, was to open for subsequent operation.
However, SMCDS continued operations until 2009 as a
result of delays in construction of the new landfill site.
Impact of improper MSWM in Phnom Penh
Although SMCDS was legally used for MSW disposal, There is nothing unusual about MSWM problems in devel-
hazardous waste from various sources was also disposed of oping countries. Improper handling is usually caused by low
there. Hospital and clinic waste in particular were legally or reduced priority from the central government and limited
disposed of at the landfill. This was due to the unclear financial and human resources. Cambodia has similarly been
waste classification written in the solid waste regulations. facing MSWM problems for decades due to minimal support
In addition, waste was all dumped together without identify- from the central government and insufficient expertise in
ing its sources, which led to serious health impacts for landfill related fields (JICA, 2005; Kum, 2005). The impact of unsa-
operators, particularly waste scavengers, who make their nitary MSWM is not only causing environmental and public
living on the landfill. These unsanitary conditions are the health risks but also degrades the beauty of the city.
result of a lack of strict hazardous waste management and With improper disposal and inadequate collection of solid
poor landfill site management. waste in the city, many problems have occurred. For exam-
Since 20 July 2009, waste disposal has moved from ple, uncollected waste produces bad smells in the area, and
SMCDS to the Dorng Kor site. Dorng Kor landfill, with an waste is thrown or flows into the drainage system when heavy
area of about 26 ha (11 ha is disposal area), was initially rain occurs; as a result, the drainage system becomes clogged.
designed to be the first sanitary landfill in Cambodia. Sewage and leachate from uncollected waste consequently
However, due to financial difficulties and insufficient techni- flow into the adjacent residential areas. With collection vehi-
cal staff, the Dorng Kor landfill is now being operated in cles in poor condition and inefficient waste collection and
a partially sanitary manner as daily soil cover is irregularly transport, waste is scattered around the city, which contrib-
performed. Leachate storage ponds were constructed but utes to a high dust concentration into the air. Surface and
there is no leachate treatment facility; leachate is pumped groundwater contamination and soil pollution are also partly
from the waste disposal areas into the ponds, and left to due to unsanitary MSWM (World Bank, 2003b). According
evaporate. Waste pickers from SMCDS moved to the to a World Bank report (World Bank, 2003b), dioxin con-
Dorng Kor site under the management of the landfill officer; centrations in the soil at SMCDS was higher than the max-
all waste pickers have to register, and pick up recyclable mate- imum level allowed by the World Health Organization; this is
rials at the assigned places. Currently, approximately 1200 because garbage mixed with plastic bags was being burned.
tons of waste is being disposed of each day at the Dorng
Kor site and the disposal cost is US$0.75 per ton of waste
(personal communication with landfill manager on Table 4. Amount of materials recycled in 2003
September, 2009).
Type of waste Amount of material
Municipal solid waste recycling: Waste recycling (kg day1) (%)
in Phnom Penh has historically been informal recycling,
which was totally performed by manual labour. Valuable Office paper 5060 11.2
materials were picked up from the waste stream at various Cardboard 13 200 29.2
points. For example, recyclable materials were collected at PET bottles 520 1.2
the source of waste generation, at the time of collection, at Plastics 5755 12.7
disposal points, and at the landfill by scavengers (Figure 4). Aluminium 1905 4.2
These recycling activities are common in many developing Ferrous/ferric metal 7317 16.2
countries (Troschinetz and Mihelcic, 2009) such as India Other metals 217 0.5
(Talyan et al., 2008), China (Zhen-shan et al., 2009), and Glass bottles 1991 4.4
Thailand (World Bank, 2003a). Other glass 4500 10.0
Waste recycling by private recyclers is very active in Food waste 705 1.6
Phnom Penh. In 2003 the total volume of recycled waste Other 4000 8.9
amounted to about 86 tons day1, which was about 9.3% Total 45 170 100
compared to the total of all waste generated in the city. Source: JICA (2005).

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Seng et al.
In addition, high levels of mercury, cesium and cadmium
have been found in the metabolism of the children scaveng-
ing the dump; around 500 people make their living on
SMCDS in conditions that are a health risk (JICA, 2005).
Furthermore, greenhouse gases are unavoidable at an open
dump site. However, a project under a clean development
mechanism (CDM) programme was initiated for a methane
(CH4) capturing system for energy recovery. It was estimated
that it will reduce about 858 000 tons of CO2 equivalent being
emitted to the atmosphere in the next 10 years (Ouk, 2005).
Unfortunately, the project has not been implemented until
recently.
Challenges and recommendations
Municipal solid waste management is a complex problem
influenced by political, legal, socio-cultural, environmental,
and economic factors, as well as by available resources
(Kum, 2005). Therefore, fruitful solutions for better MSWM
can be obtained when all of these factors were taken into con-
sideration. With regard to the implementation of proper
MSWM, a long-term strategy should be prepared with respect
to the current situation, the experience gained from previous
work, and future scenarios. In the case of Cambodia, although
the overall performance of MSWM is not well managed, the
impact does not seem to be so significant. With fast-growing
quantities of waste, consequently, the impact will probably
increase in terms of health risks and environmental degrada-
tion in the near future. Therefore, these are the overall chal-
lenges and recommendations for future improvement of
MSWM in MPP.
. Improving investments and operations of municipal waste
management services. Making investments that are cost-
effective with appropriate technology. Expanding MSWM
services to the rural areas with proper waste management
operations. In the case of MPP, CINTRI is the only body
responsible for solid waste collection service. Therefore,
MPP needs to negotiate with CINTRI to ensure its ser-
vices are fully available in the whole city with sound san-
itation. In addition, MPP or PPWM has to improve the
financial sustainability of sanitary landfill operations.
. Improving institutional effectiveness, monitoring, and
enforcement. Complementing the development of legal
arrangements and strengthening institutional capacity as
well as improving financial management are the priorities.
There is also a need to strengthen regulatory institutions
for environmental oversight, monitoring, and enforcement
of MSWM practices. To do this, the responsibilities of
every agency must be clearly defined; for example, the
rules for MoE, MPP, PPWM, and private contractors.
The budget allocated for the operational agencies must
be sufficient to ensure their sustainable operation.
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499
. Improving public information on MSWM and enhancing
social acceptability of waste disposal and treatment. The
public must be made aware of the negative consequences
of improper waste management practices, and also their
accountability in paying for better waste management ser-
vices. Environmental education should be targeted to
every sector, particularly the public school system. To
achieve this goal, MoE and MPP have to play a main
role in collaboration with related agencies such as the
Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport as well as
MoH, MoP, MoEF, NGOs, and certain other concerned
agencies.
. Improving MSWM regulation. The current regulation of
MSWM needs to be improved with a clear characteriza-
tion of waste and waste management practices. The
responsibilities of all stakeholders (residents, industries,
hospitals, and private service providers) need strengthen-
ing, while sufficient resources need to be allocated for
monitoring and enforcement.
. Creating incentives for waste minimization and recycling.
Incentives should be offered to reduce the cost of
MSWM through waste minimization and recycling.
Support should be provided for the informal waste
sector by integrating the informal sector into the formal
sector, developing recycling markets, assisting the creation
of waste cooperatives, and consulting on new waste man-
agement initiatives. Composting could be a preferred tech-
nique that needs to be expanded through the development
of viable composting facilities that can produce compost
of marketable quality. It is also important to initiate
simple waste separation at source for residents in order
to make waste treatment applicable at low cost.
Conclusion
From this overall view of MSWM in MPP, the following
conclusions have been drawn from this study.
1. There has been a rapid increase of solid waste generated in
MPP, from 0.136 million tons in 1995 to 0.361 million
tons in 2008, and it is projected to be 0.635 million tons
in 2015. Per capita household waste generation was
0.487 kg day1 while the gross MSW generation rate
was 0.74 kg capita1 day1. Informal recycling was very
active, which reduced by approximately 9.3% the amount
of waste going into the landfill. With a high quantity of
generated waste, the current MSWM service needs to be
upgraded to ensure sound sanitation throughout the city.
2. The composition of the waste generated in MPP is domi-
nated by food waste at 63.3%, followed by plastics
(15.5%), grass and wood (6.8%), and paper and cardboard
(6.4%). The remaining waste, including metals, glass,
rubber/leather, textiles, and ceramics/stone accounted for
500
less than 3%. With this high portion of organic waste,
composting of the waste and using the compost as an
organic fertilizer would be the best option for sustainable
MSWM in MPP.
3. It has been shown that technical arrangements in terms of
storage, discharge, collection and transport, and disposal
are neither sanitary nor environmentally acceptable. It is
important to improve MSWM practices together with
strict enforcement of regulations from the national to
the local level.
4. Public awareness on sanitary MSWM practices has been
seen to be low. Hence, environmental awareness needs to
be promoted through an environmental education and
training programme. There is also a need to initiate
simple waste separation at the sources in order to reduce
the cost of waste management as well as the risk to the
environment and the waste scavengers.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank to Mr Kok Sothea (lecturer at
RUPP), Mr Uy Kamal (MoE officer) and Mr Khim Nora
(Department of Environment in MPP) for their kind help
during data collection.
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