IN THE BAG
CAMBODIA

Although the UN estimates that over a quarter of the population in Cambodia still live under the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day, with an average economic growth rate of 6.5 percent over the last ten years the country has seen millions of people lifted out of poverty. One side effect of this turbo-charged growth has been a huge increase in the amount of rubbish produced by industry and households. The infrastructure to deal with it has not developed at the same pace. A husband and wife team running an ecotourism venture saw at first hand how plastic bags were choking the countryside. No plastic bag recycling facility existed in Cambodia so they started their own. Now, 'Funky Junk' makes fashion accessories and home goods out of woven plastic bags, in the process earning a decent income for poor rural communities.