China-Cambodia cooperation drives packaging waste and circularity projects
Key takeaways
- The Ministry of Environment of Cambodia signed a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding with China’s Mizuda Group to modernize waste management systems.
- The partnership supports Cambodia’s Circular Strategy on Environment, led by Prime Minister Hun Manet.
- The roadmap runs through to 2036 and includes technical cooperation, data management, research, and capacity building.
Cambodia has solidified a partnership with China’s Mizuda Group to modernize its urban waste management system. The collaboration focuses on waste sorting technologies, the extraction of economic value through reuse, and the development of waste-to-energy projects at provincial landfills.
The Ministry of Environment of Cambodia has signed a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding with Mizuda Group that sets a technical cooperation framework through to 2036. The partnership is said to reflect a growing technical synergy between China and Cambodia.
Mizuda Group operates in the field of solid waste management. Its business scope includes waste sorting, curbside waste collection and transfer, and the separation of plastic packaging from kitchen and catering waste.
H.E. Dr. Eang Sophalleth, minister at the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia, says: “Environment is life. To live well, we must unite to clean our ‘home.’ A clean environment ensures a healthy population and drives economic progress.”
Green economic transition
The initiative is part of the Ministry’s Circular Strategy on Environment, a policy directed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to transition Cambodia toward a sustainable, carbon-neutral economy.
Currently, Cambodia, such as other Southeast Asian countries, is building policy foundations and piloting early approaches for packaging EPR.
The 10-year roadmap aims to upgrade provincial landfills in line with modern sanitation regulations, strengthen the recycling sector to convert waste into a revenue-generating industry, and deploy waste-to-energy technologies to support the national power grid.
“This collaboration represents an important step by Mizuda Group in response to the Belt and Road Initiative’s green development agenda and in expanding international environmental collaboration,” states the company.
“Together, we will deepen cooperation across five areas, including technical support and capacity building, research and assessment, and data management, with a focus on developing sustainable waste management solutions and strengthening environmental governance systems.”
