Partnership Spotlight: Advancing Circular Solutions Together

Partnership Spotlight: Advancing Circular Solutions Together

We are proud to announce our partnership with River Ocean Cleanup Organization (ROC), a key ally in addressing plastic leakages into the environment and ensuring long-term sustainability of waste management interventions, supported by the Coca-Cola Foundation through the Plastic Circularity Project. This collaboration strengthens our shared commitment to reducing plastic leakage through a community-driven and technology-enabled approach. ROC’s holistic model, combining plastic collection, recycling and public awareness aligns well with UNDP’s circular economy and sustainability goals. This initiative will generate innovative and measurable impacts across multiple dimensions by integrating community engagement, environmental education, and innovative waste management practices in project targeted cities and provinces. In addition, this initiative is aligned with the Plastic Action Roadmap to tackle pollution and increase plastic circularity in Cambodia by 2040.

Through this partnership, we will:

Organize and coordinate community outreach and river cleanup events to raise awareness and inspire action on reducing plastic pollution.
Encourage broader participation for local stakeholders, including local authorities, schools, community volunteers and informal waste collectors to build long-term awareness about responsible consumption, waste segregation and recycling practices.
Provide training for informal waste collectors and equip them with skills and tools to effectively collect, sort and transport plastic waste from communities.
Promote gender-inclusive approaches that ensure equitable participation of informal waste collectors in the plastic value chain and create safe and dignified livelihood opportunities.
Strengthen ROC’s material recovery facility to ensure efficient handling, proper sorting and timely delivery of plastic waste to recycling partners and co-processors, for sustainable management of plastic waste. This prevents plastic from ending up in landfills or waterways while supporting circular solutions.

Together, we aim to deliver measurable impacts, foster accountability, and create long-term systems that protect our environment while empowering community and informal waste collectors.

Stay tuned for updates on joint initiatives, upcoming events, and opportunities to engage with this partnership.

River Cleanup Campaign

Plastic waste is threatening Cambodia’s rivers, lakes and communities. In collaboration with River Ocean Cleanup Organization (ROC), Siem Reap’s Department of Environment, Siem Reap City Administration and the TCCF Plastic Circularity Project, funded by the Coca-Cola foundation, community members, teachers, students and volunteers joined forces for awareness-raising and river cleanup in Chong Kneas floating community on Tonle Sap in the morning of 23rd January 2026.

The main theme of the event is “Together for Plastic-free Tonle Sap”. More than 400 participants collected approximately 1.25 tons of plastic waste, reinforcing Cambodia’s circular strategy and clean water campaign. Tonle Sap remains a priority to beat plastic pollution and efforts to reduce plastic leakage. Together, we can protect our water, safeguard our health, and secure our future.

Support to ROC’s Material Recovery Facilities

Phnom Penh Facility ROC currently operates a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Champus Kek village, Sangkat Prek Tmey, Chbar Ampov Commune, Phnom Penh. The site is designed to sort and store plastic waste collected from the Mekong, Tonle Sap, and Bassc Rivers. With a handling capacity of 100 tons/month, the facility has been operated with basic equipment such as a marine plastic buster boat, pickup truck, tricycle, motorcycle, and basic sorting table. Through the UNDP Cambodia’s plastic circularity project supported by TCCF, the facility is being upgraded with advanced equipment including a new marine plastic buster boat, tricycle, forklift, baler, conveyor belt, scaler, and other plastic recycling machinery. These investments aim to enhance material recovery beyond co-processing and are expected to increase the collection and recycling capacity by 7 tons/month.

River clean-up activity using the Marine Plastic Buster Boat.

A plastic sorting conveyor belt for sorting plastic waste at the Material Recovery Facility.

Forklift operator in hi-vis vest stacks large white sacks in a warehouse. — A forklift supports the efficient handling of plastic waste at the Material Recovery Facility.

Inside a warehouse, workers in blue uniforms and high-vis yellow vests handle large white sacks. — A weighing scale is used to weigh plastic waste at the Material Recovery Facility.

Siem Reap Facility The second MRF is located in Phum 3, Sangkat Chongkneas, Krong Siem Reap, Siem Reap province. It focuses on sorting plastic waste collected from Tonle Sap and surrounding communities, while providing temporary storage for the recovered materials. With a current handling capacity of 10–15 tons per month, the facility has been operating with minimal equipment, primarily a collection cart. UNDP Cambodia’s Plastic Circularity Project supported by TCCF, has equipped ROC with a marine plastic buster boat to strengthen plastic collection efforts. This addition is expected to increase collection capacity by approximately 2.5 tons per month, further reducing plastic leakage into Tonle Sap and supporting community-based recovery efforts.

Material Recovery Facility for sorting and storing plastic waste in Phnom Penh, with a handling capacity of 100 tons per month.

Temporary storage facility for recovered materials in Siem Reap Province, with a handling capacity of 10–15 tons per month.

Spotlight: Using Best Available Technology (BAT) for Plastic Recovery: TrinamiX

ROC Strives to recover plastics as comprehensively as possible. However, distinguishing between different types of plastic by sight alone is often challenging. This is where near-infrared spectrometers (TrinamiX) play a crucial role, accurately identifying plastic types and enabling more effective processing. This is a clear example of how community organizations are leveraging Best Available Technology to advance circular solutions.

At ROC, TrinamiX is applied to:

Training and Capacity Building: Empowering informal waste collectors to recognize and sort plastic more accurately in the field, improving sorting efficiency and maximizing recovery and recycling potential
Building Trust and Transparency: Demonstrating to partners the precision of ROC’s sorting system, reinforcing professionalism technical capacity in resource recovery operations
Data Collection and Analysis: Generating insights into material composition by identifying collected plastics, such as PET, PP, LDPE, etc. thereby strengthening evidence-based decision making.

ROC maximizes material recovery through integrated technology using TrinamiX devices to identify different types of plastic and facilitate further processing.

Capacity Building Training for Informal Waste Collectors

The primary goal is to strengthen the capacity of informal waste collectors to safely and effectively collect and sort plastic waste, prevent plastic leakage into the environment, particularly rivers while improving their livelihoods and integrate them into the plastic value chain.

Specifically, the training aims to:

Increase awareness of plastic pollution in Cambodia and the role of informal waste collectors in protecting rivers and oceans.
Build skills to identify, safely collect, and properly sort plastics according to circular economy and Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP) standards.
Promote safe working practices and improve the quality and value of recovered plastic.
Enhance livelihood opportunities through stronger participation in the recycling value chain.

Strengthening the capacity of informal waste collectors is essential to preventing plastic leakage into Cambodia’s rivers and ocean. In Cambodia, the majority of informal waste collectors commonly known as “edjais” are women1. While they play an important role in expanding waste collection coverage, recycling and minimizing waste, especially where formal recycling services are lacking, their work often exposes them to unsafe working conditions. Through improved knowledge, safer working practices, and standardized sorting skills, informal collectors can play a critical role in advancing the plastic circular economy. This initiative not only protects vital ecosystems such as the Mekong River and Tonlé Sap Lake, but also enhances livelihood opportunities and social recognition for informal waste collectors especially women and vulnerable groups. Through these efforts we are building a more inclusive, effective, and sustainable system to reduce plastic pollution and protect Cambodia’s waterways for future generations.