RESEARCH ACCOUNT
Plastic waste on Cambodia’s islands, beaches and reefs
Bianca Roberts, Marianne Teoh and Kieran Murray / Fauna & Flora International
Household and beach surveys: 2018. Reef-debris surveys: 2019. Some livelihood evidence: 2019–2020. Published 2020.
What the research found
- In the Koh Sdach waste sample, plastic made up 27% of household waste by weight. This came from 24 participating households over a 24-hour collection, not a national waste estimate. PDF p.19 · PDF p.22
- The 2018 Sihanoukville audit recorded 5,695 debris items across four sites on three beaches; 81% of the recorded items were plastic. PDF p.20 · PDF p.26
- The report records 268 debris items at 15 Koh Sdach reef sites and 247 at 20 Koh Rong sites in 2019. Fishing gear was prominent, but the surveys had different effort and recording conventions. PDF p.19 · PDF p.22 · PDF p.25
- The household survey reports that 52% of respondents discarded used nets into the ocean and 30% sold them to local buyers. These are self-reported behaviours. The overall survey included 120 households; the denominator answering this particular question is not separately stated. PDF p.19 · PDF p.23
- The report identifies gaps in microplastic measurements, pollution impacts and the evaluation of proposed waste interventions. Annex 1 notes the absence of formal monitoring evidence for an earlier household water-filter initiative. PDF p.35 · PDF p.47
- The Koh Rong summary reports 247 debris items, but its categories add to 246. It lists 168 nets, an average of two nets per site across 20 sites, and a 66% share; those numbers do not reconcile. The underlying records are needed to resolve the discrepancy. PDF p.25
How the evidence was collected
A synthesis of several field components: 120 Koh Sdach household questionnaires, 24 households supplying one day of waste, a four-site beach audit on three Sihanoukville beaches, reef-debris surveys and stakeholder interviews. Sampling effort and measurement units differ between components. PDF p.18 · PDF p.19 · PDF p.20 · PDF p.22
Reported measurements
Separate survey measurements
PDF p.19 · PDF p.22 · PDF p.25 · PDF p.26
| Measure | Value | Unit / denominator | PDF page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koh Sdach questionnaires | 120 | households | 19 |
| Waste-characterisation participants | 24 | households; 24 hours | 19 |
| Collected household waste | 23 | kg | 19 |
| Plastic fraction | 27 | % of waste weight | 22 |
| Sihanoukville debris | 5695 | items at four sites | 26 |
| Plastic in beach debris | 81 | % of recorded items | 26 |
| Koh Sdach reef debris | 268 | items at 15 sites | 25 |
| Koh Rong reef debris | 247 | reported items at 20 sites; inconsistent breakdown | 25 |
Counts, percentages by weight and percentages of items have different denominators. They should not be pooled into a single pollution rate.
Interpretation and uncertainty
- The synthesis combines studies and years; it is not a uniform coastal monitoring programme.
- Household responses are self-reported. The one-day waste sample does not measure seasonal variation.
- The report reuses coral-monitoring data; possible overlap with the 2019 Koh Rong reef brief remains a study-family question.
- Character-code corruption was repaired for a cached text derivative. Findings above were checked against original PDF pages; remaining decoded text is not fully verified.
Original report
Read the original report · Publisher / archive copy · Download these findings (JSON)
Coverage of this account
Methods and selected findings, source tables and Annex 1 have been examined. This account does not cover every section of the 52-page report. The PDF remains the reference where recovered text is imperfect.
- Sections outside the recorded examined-page list remain unread for this account.
- Underlying household records, interview transcripts and complete reef-survey raw data are not included.