Effects of Last Year’s Flooding Still Being Felt by Scavengers
Large dump trucks with beds full of rusted, twisted metal and aluminium canss rolled in, one after another, to unload their cargo at Phnom Penh’s largest scrap yard in Dangkao district. “All the metal must be exported because there are no recycling factories here [in Cambodia],” said Long Leang Y, the warehouse’s manager. Mr. Leang Y buys all sorts of junk from middlemen in the city before selling it to buyers across the border. But since sever flooding at the end of last year engulfed Thailand, many of the scrap yards there remained shut, meaning exporters here are only able to send their product to Vietnam. … Although there are no official figures on the amount of scrap exported from Cambodia, Mr Leang Y said that demand has dropped more than 50 percent compared to the same period last year. …
