Tuk-tuk to transport plastic waste from the Mekong

During a cycling tour through Cambodia, specifically a boat trip on the Mekong, our attention was drawn not only to the many impressive historical sites we visited, but also to the incredible amount of rubbish, including plastic, polluting the river on which many people live. This was the decisive moment to start looking for organisations worthy of support that have set themselves the goal of cleaning up waterways.

We found what we were looking for in the oeoo association (oeoo in Cambodia – One Earth – One Ocean e. V.). We are very impressed by the association's many projects in various regions of the world, which tackle the cleaning of various bodies of water with local staff and a wide range of solutions.

Since 2018, oeoo has set up several cleaning and recycling projects in Cambodia with the aim of cleaning the Mekong and its tributaries.

We are delighted to support the establishment of the sixth centre with the donation of a tuk-tuk (2024) and the financing of a driver (2025), which will enable the transport of the collected waste.

With the new centre, which opened in early February 2025, 60 km south of Phnom Penh, oeoo now operates six recycling centres with 60 permanent employees who receive a salary and health insurance. The employees transport the waste they collect by tuk-tuk or truck to oeoo's own collection centres, where it is cleaned, dried and sorted. The material is then pressed into sorted bales, weighed and packaged for transport to the recycler.