In Cambodia it's very difficult to find a trash can. Cambodians are always
throwing their rubbish on the ground. They don't have bins sitting around like you'd see in a developed nation. I have even watched my neighbors walk
out of their house to dump their trash in the road or the field across the
street from their house.
I recently asked a Cambodian if it was a lack of knowledge.
I had figured that Cambodians simply don’t understand the composition process and
the science behind recycling. Nope. She said that Cambodians are taught in
school that if you throw plastic down on the ground that it will be there
forever. So why the constant litter? Even today - a water bottle was thrown out of a moving vehicle and nearly hit me in the head.
While the biodegradable products eventually fade from view,
the plastic bags and candy wrappers remain forever. Still, you can imagine the smell.Outside of
restaurants and hotels is the worst. They dump their trash (correctly for the
proper collectors to pick up in the morning), but someone inevitably will scatter the food
materials when they open the bags to search for cans and bottles. Cans and
bottles are the only materials that are recycled. Turning them in will be
rewarded with about $0.05. .jpg)
And then there are the rats…
All in all, the first thing I notice every time I get off an
airplane in Cambodia is the smell. Eventually you get used to it, and you stop noticing the smell.
But the beautiful countryside littered with ugly old plastic is always as disturbing
sight.
When I was in India I was keeping all my trash with me, but I could NEVER EVER find a trash bin around, so by the end I just gave up and started to do like locals. Cambodia has the same problem. They have a few trash bin, but they are not everywhere, especially in the country side. In bigger and wealthier cities, people still throw their trash on the ground (New York is a very good example). Yet the kids in America learn that they should use trash bins. Lazy people are all over the world, but in some places, cities are wealthy enough to hire people to clean up the mess left by others. Actually Cambodia is a lot more clean then their neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the NGO that is working on environmental issues? How's about a "Keep Siem Reap Beautiful" campaign? Someone needs to figure some beneficial use for the trash, eh?
ReplyDeleteRight... i don't know what happen to my country,,,,, I am giving the presentation about the subconscious mind next week which included why people throw the trash everywhere here even my classmate in my university where they got the education,,,,, They throw the bottle of water on the street and plastic bag in the garden where while we doing exercise....., As i am A Cambodian tried to tell them this is bad,, However....., i felt they kept me as an alien....I really sick of it ....From Battambang
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