TONTOTON
TONTOTON works in Sihanoukville, Cambodia to prevent plastic waste from entering the environment by creating a community-based solution for the management of plastics through a certified plastic credit system.
They work with the local, informal waste pickers to collect the plastic from the environment and their household partnerships and take them to be processed at their Material Recovery Facility.
Its main objectives are:
- To directly remove plastics from entering the ocean
- To provide stable incomes for and empower marginalized communities, and
- To create a circular economy by providing a market
TONTOTON has been identified as UNESCO Green Citizens project, the first in Cambodia. TONTOTON is also the first plastic neutralizing program to be certified under the Ocean Bound Plastic Neutrality Standard.
They also have operations in Vietnam.
TONTOTON works in Sihanoukville, Cambodia to prevent plastic waste from entering the environment by creating a community-based solution for the management of plastics through a certified plastic credit system.
They work with the local, informal waste pickers to collect the plastic from the environment and their household partnerships and take them to be processed at their Material Recovery Facility.
Its main objectives are:
- To directly remove plastics from entering the ocean
- To provide stable incomes for and empower marginalized communities, and
- To create a circular economy by providing a market
TONTOTON has been identified as UNESCO Green Citizens project, the first in Cambodia. TONTOTON is also the first plastic neutralizing program to be certified under the Ocean Bound Plastic Neutrality Standard.
They also have operations in Vietnam.
TONTOTON collected almost 3,000 tons of plastic diverted from the environment. Additionally, they have equipped over 400 houses with a plastic segregation system to avoid plastic leakage. TONTOTON have also involved hundreds of informal waste pickers and provided an additional monthly income of $10-12.
They have also built two classrooms using recycled plastic for the M'Lop Tapang Community Educational Center, supporting 300 children in Phum Thmey village in Cambodia, in collaboration with their NGO partner, M’Lop Tapang.
The coastal settlements where TONTOTON works, such as the floating community of Oh Vietnam, were formerly plagued by surplus garbage and plastic waste that accumulated and even entered people's homes. The lack of effective trash collection and disposal infrastructure in these locations poses a huge barrier, which TONTOTON is attempting to overcome.
TONTOTON's primary focus is on "valueless plastic" - typical everyday packaging and trash plastic that currently has no financial incentive for collection and recycling. While TONTOTON has discovered ways to recycle this plastic, such as using it as an alternative fuel source for cement manufacturing, the technology is still in its early stages and cannot be fully commercialized.
TONTOTON’s program is an example of empowering local communities to solve an issue faced by all. They worked with the informal waste sector to augment their income as well as improve the lives of the people in the community by collecting the plastic waste. It is an example of working together with the local community to solve a community wide problem. Additionally, they have collaborated with other local NGOs to provide innovative solutions, such as a classroom made of recycled plastic boards.
Other projects should look to TONTOTON as an example of working with the local community and other local stakeholders to address the local problems.
The kNOwWaste Knowledge Platform was developed through a Project Cooperation Agreement funding by UNEP on 2016. The platform provides data and information on holistic waste management to stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific region. The platform was developed with the following aims: generate and consolidate data or information on holistic waste management, transform data into easily comprehensible outputs for use by key stakeholders, map out and disseminate information on international waste management projects under the GPWM and UNEP projects as well as other international partners, and provide capacity building support through dissemination of data or information support for relevant stakeholders on holistic waste and waste management system.
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