Phnom Penh officials have announced a two-year pilot project to turn garbage into fertilizer.
Heng Nareth, director of the pollution control department for the Ministry of Environment, said a $40,000 grant from the German government will be used to process compost on a 2,000- square-meter piece of land at the municipal garbage dump.
According to Chiep Sivorn, director of the municipality’s Environment Department, organic garbage from vegetable stands at Deum Kor market in Tuol Kok district will be turned into compost. The trash needs to be sorted at the market before it goes to the compost processing site.
Three German experts met with government officials recently to discuss the project, which does not yet have a start-up date.
The current dump in Meanchey district is overloaded, and the municipality is considering moving it to a new site. The Ebara Corporation of Japan has said it now wants to study the feasibility of setting up a processing plant that can turn trash into fertilizer.
