Waste characterization as an element of waste management planning: Lessons learned from a study in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Community-based waste management (CBWM) is an alternative waste management strategy for communities where municipal governments are not providing waste collection services. In order to assess the feasibility of introducing CBWM to an unserviced community in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we undertook a waste characterization study and household survey in the summer of 2004. In the waste characterization study, we found that waste generation per capita was low (0.34 kg per capita per day, on average) compared to communities in other developing countries. We did not find a statistically significant relationship between household waste production and either income or expenditures. We observed that the waste stream in the study area was mostly organic in nature (66% by weight) and contained few recyclable materials (5% by weight). Our results illustrate the importance of a waste characterization study for assessing how many collection vehicles will be needed for a CBWM program, whether composting is a feasible option, whether recovery of recyclables will be a significant income source for the program, and whether social programming is needed to change household awareness and waste behaviours. We found that the household survey results on household attitudes and membership were a valuable complement to the waste characterization study, as they provided us with information about household size (and therefore allowed us to calculate per capita waste generation), the local residents’ willingness to separate waste streams at the source, and residents’ willingness to participate in and pay for CBWM services. We conclude that the waste characterization study and the household survey together are important tools for planning a CBWM program.