Waste Bricks, a Solution to Waste Management Problem in Pu Ngaol, Cambodia.

Maddie Meech and Gemma Davidson are both in their first year of Engineering at University of Canterbury and a recent project has bought them together. Maddie, who is considering Mechanical Engineering and Gemma, Civil Engineering, used their combined knowledge to create a solution to a well-known challenge of waste in Pu Ngaol, Cambodia.

Each year ‘Engineers Without Borders’ Australia hosts the EWB Challenge Showcase event, where the highest-scoring EWB Challenge teams from universities around Australia and New Zealand, are invited to present their project to a panel of judges. The panel included representatives from the partner community, Engineers Without Borders Australia, and their industry partners. 

The group were tasked to address a problem within the constraints of the village, Pu Ngaol in Cambodia. They needed to find a solution to address how waste materials are currently mismanaged in the village. Maddie and Gemma’s team came up with an idea to create bricks, in a recycling plant within the village using common plastic and agricultural waste. These bricks are intended to be used for the construction of dwellings, and were based off the current Khmer style housing used in rural communities. The recycling plant would need to be located within the village as the costs for manufacturing needed to be sustainable. 

The EWB Challenge Showcase is a great chance to connect with other students in Engineering and explore how Engineering skills can help create a positive social impact in the future. Each team has to present their project for consideration to representatives within the industry. There are a total of 20 universities involved in (EWB) and the project that they have completed has won them a place to attend an EWB Challenge Showcase event being hosted in Cairns, Australia later in the year.