Waste management

Let's improve air quality through waste management

How can we find innovative solutions for improving air quality through waste management?

One of the biggest environmental problems in Phnom Penh is air pollution, which leads to sever health risks. Design a smart behavior change campaign to hack the local communities into changing their actions, and stop open burning. Let's join with us to find innovative solutions for this issue.
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Challenge description

With over 2,1 million permanent residents in phnom penh, and around 800,000 non permanent residents, the city is overwhelmed with household waste. At the Deum Kao landfill, there is a current saturation of space, leaving a lot of household waste on the streets.

In 2018, tons of household waste illegally dumped and burned outside the city, mostly plastics, created a toxic cloud which drifted above the capital for a few weeks. Air Pollution is on the rise as the city grows and construction and household waste materials also multiply.

This is one of the biggest environmental problems in Phnom Penh, which leads to sever health risks. All year round, the burning of green waste and garbage are common practice around the city, which has harmful effect on air quality. These problems can be solved with the involvement of the local population. Design a smart behaviour change campaign to hack the local communities into changing their actions, and stop open burning. 

Think about what is being burned, who are the individuals who dispose of the waste wrongly, and then who burns this. Think about creative solutions to educate people to shift this behaviour.

How can we find innovative solutions for improving air quality through waste management? 

SOLUTIONS COULD FOCUS ON

  • Think about what could convince Cambodians to stop burning waste
    • about the health risks that citizens in Phnom Penh are exposed to from the burning of waste (respitory diseases such as lung cancer, pneumonia, etc.) 
    • financial implications- could a financial incentive work, if the model shows they can save money?
  • Create an incentive for people to stop burning waste- think SMART, and think of WHY they should stop and HOW- where could the waste go instead, and how could the infomral collectors and other stakeholders be connected?
  • Identify key locations where illegal open burining of waste is taking place
  • Where could the waste in these areas be taken to instead of people burning them
    • Identify who should be speaking to who, including the informal workers, the municipality/ local authorities, waste management collection

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USEFUL LINKS

Waste management structure:

https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/topics/solid-waste/

Case on Waste burning:

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sihanoukville-building-site-accused-burning-waste

https://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/news/a-burning-issue/

Air pollution

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/air-pollution-phnom-penh/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140826121056.htm

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Challenge vision

Solutions for facing the issue of air polution that comes from the rise as the city grows and construction and household waste materials also multiply

  • Behavioural change among citizens to  dispose the waste in the eco-friendly way 
  • Creative solutions to educate people to shift open burning behaviour
  • The creation and design of new products 

Together we can make Cambodia a better place to live

The EU Delegation in Cambodia and Impact Hub Phnom Penh challenge you to solve climate issues in Phnom Penh and Cambodia during this one day Hackathon! The EU delegation have set you four climate challenges to solve in Sustainability, Mobility, Energy, Circularity, Emissions.

See more from Phnom Penh
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One of the biggest environmental problems in Phnom Penh is air pollution, which leads to sever health risks. Design a smart behavior change campaign to hack the local communities into changing their actions, and stop open burning. Let's join with us to find innovative solutions for this issue.

Read more
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