Rice for plastic: how two villages kept going through Covid

Peam Ta Uor and Chong Prolay, 2020. When Covid stopped schools and the seasonal clean-up festivals, BambooShoot looked for a way to keep the momentum going in the floating villages.

The answer was Rice for Plastic. It started in June 2020 in two villages, Peam Ta Uor and Chong Prolay, with around 400 families taking part.

How it worked

Families kept their household plastic, properly sorted, for collection. Families who removed plastic they found on the ground or in the water could take part too. Youth volunteers checked the bags each month, so that only plastic was collected.

In return, families received rice. In 2020, a full 50 kg sack of sorted plastic was worth 5 kg of rice for an individual, or 10 kg for a family.

Why rice

Harvesting rice is a routine every family in Cambodia knows. The idea was to make keeping plastic a routine too. Rice for Plastic later grew into the Harvest Plastic programme.

Source: Phnom Penh Post, 22/12/20.