Rows of filled Plastic Only collection bags

Harvest Plastic

Helping households keep plastic out of Tonle Sap.

Harvest plastic the way you harvest rice.

Harvesting rice is a routine for many families in Cambodia. Harvest Plastic borrows that rhythm. Instead of burning plastic or throwing it in the lake, families keep it, sort it and bring it in, season after season.

The programme grew out of Rice for Plastic, which started in June 2020, during Covid, when festivals and schools had stopped.

The Plastic Only collection bag, printed in English and Khmer — The Plastic Only bag, printed in English and Khmer.

Five steps, from the kitchen to recovery.

1
Separate
Families keep plastic apart from other waste at home.
2
Collect
Plastic goes into special rice bags marked "Plastic Only", with instructions in Khmer and English.
3
Store
Full bags are brought to a pagoda, a village centre or a village plastic store.
4
Recover
Collected plastic is sent on for processing where a buyer or partner can take it.
5
Recognise
Families who sort correctly receive rice and are recognised as model families.

Sources: Ocean Recovery Alliance, Water Falling and Rising; Phnom Penh Post, 22/12/20; Phnom Penh Post, 27/03/23.

Only plastic goes in the bag.

Mixed waste is hard to store and harder to recover. So youth volunteers check the bags, and only properly sorted plastic counts.

Rice goes to the families who sort correctly. The aim is a new habit, not a handout.

A man sorts filled plastic collection bags

What families have collected.

Figures as reported in the press, with their source.

2,650+

Rice bags of plastic stored in Mechrey, about 10 tonnes

Cambodianess, 20/08/21

5 t

Household plastic from 1,100 families in Kampong Phluk, in four months

Cambodianess, 21/12/24

400

Families in the first Rice for Plastic villages, 2020

Phnom Penh Post, 22/12/20

Who makes it work.

Harvest Plastic is run with Ocean Recovery Alliance, which designed the Plastic Only rice bags. Village leaders, local authorities and youth volunteers run the collection on the ground. Families do the most important part: they keep their plastic.

Recycling near the lake is still limited.

Collecting plastic is only half the job. There are few buyers for mixed plastic around Tonle Sap. In one 2022 campaign in Chong Khneas, most of the plastic collected went to landfill. BambooShoot keeps looking for buyers and partners who can recover more of it.

Sources: Phnom Penh Post, 23/10/22; Phnom Penh Post, 06/04/23.