PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian young man has spent three years developing recycled equipment used to create paper plates from sugarcane waste in an effort aimed at reducing the use of plastic products.

Taing Socheat, founder and managing director for MG Pacific Company Limited, said that he scavenged and hunt for old machines, from the market to car repair garages, to make improvements on. He hopes that his efforts would show consumers the benefit of recycling waste and significantly reducing pollution levels.

Socheat saw that Cambodia has increased its usage of Styrofoam dishes which take 700-800 years to dissolve. He hopes that people will understand the need to switch to something more sustainable.

MG’s paper plates are made by cleaning the sugar cane waste, pressing it in a machine with a pressure of up to 10 tons, heating it up to 200 degrees Celsius to kill germs, and waterproofing the product.

Socheat said that currently, the hardest task he is tackling is how to lower the price of his product. Since the production is small-scale, the cost of production is high. However, if consumers appreciate and value the product, they will be able to grow the production and makes it cheaper.

He said, “First, we clean up the trash of sugar cane waste that is usually thrown away to rot or burn into pollution. Second, we create more local products, and thus, create more jobs.”

Mock Channa, a seller of sugarcane juice, said that he collected sugarcane waste for Socheat’s company instead of throwing it away like he used to. He is happy to contribute to recycling for the benefit of the environment.

^{(Source: A24)}