Compost City: A Social Enterprise Connecting Us with Soil
Meet Compost City, an Impact Hub Phnom Penh alumnus and inspiring social enterprise encouraging new forms of waste management in Phnom Penh.
- Songhour Thav
Waste management is a huge issue in Phnom Penh (and elsewhere), affecting our environment and our health. We often think of waste from sources like factories, markets, or shops. But what about waste from our very own kitchens?
Tons of food scraps are dumped in landfills every year from the kitchens of people like you and me. But the landfill is not the only option for this waste! This is what inspired Monorom Tchaw, the founder of the social enterprise Compost City.
Compost City provides Environmental Lovers with the equipment, knowledge and power to transform their kitchen waste into compost at home through a 3-month skill validation program including a ready-made balcony composting system and support service. Compost City was the winner of our SmartSpark Incubation Program Cohort 3, winning a USD 3000 grant prize to expand and gaining entrepreneurship and business skills training and mentoring support.
The Inspiration to Start Composting
It all started when Monorom noticed just how much waste humans create every day. She decided to make switches in her own life to be more sustainable: reducing the use of plastics, avoiding using fuel vehicles when possible, and especially, reducing waste from her kitchen. And from there came Compost City: a project to compost the waste from Monorom’s kitchen and the waste from lots of other people’s kitchens!
Why compost? The list of reasons is long, including:
- We help reduce waste from the landfill
- We help transform waste into natural fertilizers that are good for the soil and other crops
- And, for those who live in the city, it helps connect us to be closer to nature, soil.
Monorom’s Rewarding Journey as a Social Entrepreneur
What Monorom gained the most from her journey was discovering her core values and boosting her self-esteem. Monorom admits that she had difficulty in building self-confidence, but she knew that she had a deep connection with the environment, and that was enough to propel her forward.
“We don’t need to wait until everything is perfect to start,” shares Monorom. “In the past I always thought that my idea and prototype were not good enough to show to others. But I did show to others anyway, and I got feedback. Now I’ve realized that even if it was not good enough, or it was just a crazy idea, that is something I love. We should start somewhere, then we can keep improving over and over again from the feedback.”
Besides selling and providing composting services, Compost City also offers fun “soil and environmental” sharing sessions and a compost playground called “Leng Dey.” Leng Dey is for those who are interested in composting can experience and test it, and it is also a place for community catch-up where everyone comes to relax, share and learn from each other as well.
“I see a lot of environmental messages that can sound scary. I believe that everyone must do something and start somewhere. But for me, I want people to think that environmental protection activities are fun, and everyone does it because it’s fun and enjoyable,” Monorom underlines.
If you are inspired by Monorom’s startup and want to find out more, you can visit the Compost City Facebook page!
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