PlasticSmart Cambodia: Business Cases and Practices to Mitigate Plastic Waste and Pollution for a Sustainable Future
Background and Context
CARE International is a globally recognized humanitarian and development organization working to address poverty and social injustice. Since 1973, CARE Cambodia has implemented programs focusing on gender equality, climate resilience, and sustainable livelihoods.
PlasticSmart Cambodia, implemented by CARE Cambodia in partnership with CARE Austria, Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) and Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), and funded by the European Union and Austrian Development Agency, aims to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by promoting sustainable packaging and waste management practices. Recent 2025 field research reveals critical challenges: no at-source segregation, open burning is widespread in rural and underserved areas, edjai are the main recyclers who ace unstable/opaque pricing, debt traps, health risks, and lack of formalization. Household sorting remains low and service uptake is limited.
To address these issues, the project will develop the “Recyclables Marketplace” — a lightweight, mobile-first web platform (shareable URL) that creates a transparent channel connecting households, informal waste collectors (edjai), and small depots. The platform is intentionally designed to work alongside, rather than replace, existing formal municipal waste collection systems. It does not mandate nationwide segregation or disrupt current practices. Instead, it offers a voluntary, trust-building pathway for motivated households and collectors to participate in quality recycling.
The platform should be accessible via a simple shareable URL, requiring no app download, and will function offline through browser-based storage that syncs automatically when connectivity is restored. Recognizing the context of our target users, the interface will be Khmer-first with heavy use of icons and voice guidance to accommodate varying literacy levels, while SMS notifications will ensure critical updates reach users even without data plans. At its core, the platform builds trust through transparency, providing real-time pricing information, digital collection logs, and a points-based incentive system that rewards both households and edjai for participation and quality. The technical architecture prioritizes low-cost, low-maintenance operations to ensure the platform remains viable and sustainable well beyond the project’s 2-year pilot period.
Objectives
Overall objective is to develop a web-based digital platform for profitable and sustainable waste management including improve income stability and gender responsiveness for informal waste collectors particularly women and all people of genders, enables household participation in quality recycling, enhances fair market linkages with small depots, recyclers and generates reliable diversion data for program management and local authorities while embedding gender responsive approach.
Specific Objectives:
- Increase transparency and trust in recyclables collection through daily price visibility and digital proof of collection.
- Improve edjai income stability and quality via clear pricing, logs, earnings history, and performance-based points
- Enable households/vendors to participate easily (request pickup, receive confirmation, earn points, view history/impact).
- Support small depots to access more reliable pre-sorted supply and communicate fair prices.
- Provide CARE/partners and local authorities with simple diversion (including sex, age, and other disaggregated) data for program management and reporting.
- Ensure the solution is simple, low-risk, offline-tolerant, Dual Language- Khmer & English, and operationally sustainable.