Cambodian entrepreneur recycles plastic bottles into brooms

MANILA, Philippines — An entrepreneur in Phnom Penh, Cambodia purchases empty plastic bottles from trash collectors and garbage depots to recycle them as brooms.

Has Kea used to work as a regular broomstick seller, so he is fully aware of the high demand for quality brooms, which are often imported from neighbors Thailand and Vietnam.

For nearly the past year, workers at Has' warehouse spin bottles into strips which become the brooms' bristles, found to be more robust and cheaper than a regular brush.

The strips are collected into a bundle on a machine, softened in hot water, then sliced evenly to be sewn with wires on bamboo sticks.

Since March 2023, Has and his workers have handled nearly 36,000 kilograms of bottles, working on around 5,000 bottles daily to produce 500 brooms a day.

The resulting plastic brooms sell between 10,000 to 15,000 riel (roughly P200 each).

According to environmental department of Cambodia, Phnom Penh produces as much as 34 million kilograms of waste daily, one-fifth of which are single-use plastic.

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