• Burmese
Sunday, June 22, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
25 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

Big Hurdles Ahead in Rangoon Trash Cleanup

Kyaw Hsu Mon by Kyaw Hsu Mon
November 18, 2015
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Big Hurdles Ahead in Rangoon Trash Cleanup

Municipal pull trash from the city’s drainage system. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — With the UN Climate Change Conference due to sit in Paris at the end of November, ecological issues are once again creeping back into the global agenda.

With the climate talks on the horizon, last month The Irrawaddy was invited along with seven other regional journalists to examine some of the innovative recycling projects underway in the Netherlands.

The tour, organized by the Holland Branding agency and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed to showcase the work of factories, banks, film projects and local governments involved in either bankrolling, promoting or manufacturing recycled goods.

RelatedPosts

Renowned Myanmar language teacher John Okell is still inspiring students, five decades on.

Love of the Lingo

August 5, 2020
10.2k
--

‘Secret Garden’ in Wa Special Region Leaves Much to the Imagination

February 27, 2020
8.5k
/ The Irrawaddy

Ten Things to do in Yangon This Week

October 24, 2017
7.2k

On our visit to Amsterdam, we met Peter Smith, an artist and photographer who started the Klean Foundation to raise awareness of the environmental impact of garbage on the city’s waterways. For the last two years, he has been wandering the canals that ring the capital, collecting litter to fashion into a 12-meter tall statue of the Virgin Mary, which he has dubbed the ‘Plastic Madonna’.

“At least 8 million tons of trash are going from the canals to the ocean every year,” Smith told journalists, adding that if the trend continued, “our children will have to eat plastic soup in the future.”

Elsewhere, we saw municipalities sending refuse to be refashioned into shopping bags and toilet paper, while factories salvaged parts from some of the 400,000 tons of electric appliances discarded annually in the Netherlands.

The scene was a far cry from Rangoon, where gutters and drains are perennially clogged with debris, and the grounds of the alleys behind apartment blocks are impossible to discern through piles of rotting food waste and plastic litter.

Waste collection in the commercial capital of Burma is rudimentary and suffers from a lack of municipal funding. Lowly paid teams of collection workers from the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), often starting in the evening and working into the late hours, roam the streets and collect garbage bags into pushcarts.

Fighting off the occasional stray dog, and mindful of the occasional speeding car racing down otherwise deserted streets, workers push their carts back to waiting garbage trucks, which usually take their cargo to be dumped at one of two landfills on the city’s outskirts—either Dawei Chaung in North Dagon or Htein Bin in Hlaing Tharyar.

At present, none of the 1,500 tons of garbage collected by the YCDC is recycled. With the assistance of $8.2 million in Japanese economic aid, the municipal government plans to open a $16 million recycling plant in Mingaladon in 2017.

Even once it is fully operational, it will only be able to recycle 60 tons of rubbish per day, less than 5 percent of the city’s total waste production.

Win Myo Thu, cofounder of the environmental NGO Eco-Dev, said that there was little local understanding of the environmental impact of household garbage, and all levels of government into Burma needed to lead a cultural change.

He pointed to the recent development of waste-to-energy plants at Dawei Chaung and Htein Bin as a positive interim step before more sophisticated recycling projects were introduced, such as the separation of recyclable materials from other household waste.

“Most people don’t know how to use waste materials effectively, that’s why we’re now encouraging waste-to-energy projects by the government,” he said. “[But] the government has to give people the incentive for recycling projects.”

Both power plants now have a combined operational capacity of 37.4 megawatts after a staged construction in the last two years. Khin Hlaing, a member of the YCDC’s central committee, stressed that better education was needed to reduce pollution around Rangoon and make recycling projects more attractive to investors.

“People awareness is still weak, they need to know the right way to discard their rubbish,” he said.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: A_FactivaRangoon (Yangon)
Kyaw Hsu Mon

Kyaw Hsu Mon

The Irrawaddy

Similar Picks:

Inspiring Women of Burma  
Burma

Inspiring Women of Burma  

by The Irrawaddy
March 18, 2016
33.5k

The contributions of some of Burma’s leading female figures are highlighted in the final part of a series that ran...

Read moreDetails
Obama’s Second Burma Visit Falls Flat
Stories That Shaped Us

Obama’s Second Burma Visit Falls Flat

by Kyaw Zwa Moe
November 14, 2014
16.2k

As US President Barack Obama concludes his second visit to Burma, many in the pro-democracy movement slam his ringing endorsement...

Read moreDetails
Australian-Karen Actress: ‘I Hope Karen People Will Have the Right to Self-Determination’
Asia

Australian-Karen Actress: ‘I Hope Karen People Will Have the Right to Self-Determination’

by Saw Yan Naing
January 18, 2016
13.7k

Tasneem Roc, an Australian actress who also has ethnic Karen roots, speaks with The Irrawaddy about her career and her...

Read moreDetails
Burma’s Media Landscape Through the Years
Burma

Burma’s Media Landscape Through the Years

by The Irrawaddy
May 4, 2016
13.5k

In the wake of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on Tuesday, The Irrawaddy revisits a history of Burmese media stretching...

Read moreDetails
Burmese Director Explores Same-Sex Relationships in New Film
Burma

Burmese Director Explores Same-Sex Relationships in New Film

by Yu Mon Kyaw
January 28, 2016
8.2k

Entitled ‘Gemini,’ Nyo Min Lwin’s film about romance between two men explores ground seldom trod in Burma’s movie industry.

Read moreDetails
A Buddhist monastery.
Culture

Influential Artist Honored 70 Years After Death 

by Wei Yan Aung
July 27, 2017
10.5k

In a span of 15 years, U Ba Nyan was able to revolutionize Myanmar’s artistic sphere.

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Women’s Voices in Legislatures Set to Rise Almost Threefold

Women’s Voices in Legislatures Set to Rise Almost Threefold

Ye Htut

Ye Htut

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trade and Traffic from Thai Border Region Dwindle as Checkpoints Multiply

Trade and Traffic from Thai Border Region Dwindle as Checkpoints Multiply

2 days ago
905
The Lady Myanmar’s Generals Can’t Defeat

The Lady Myanmar’s Generals Can’t Defeat

3 days ago
668

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Moves to Seize Sagaing Roads

    Myanmar Junta Moves to Seize Sagaing Roads

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Certifying a Chinese Security Invasion; Boosting Ties With Nuclear North Korea; and More

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Changes Election Law Ahead of Polls

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Residents of Myanmar Ruby Hub Speak Out as TNLA Mining Takes Toll

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Trade and Traffic from Thai Border Region Dwindle as Checkpoints Multiply

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.