On 31 March, the EuroCham Advocacy team and the Garment & Manufacturing Committee, together with the FABRIC team of GIZ, hosted a textile waste recycling factory visit with representatives from the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE) and the General Department of Taxation (GDT).
The field excursion forms part of ongoing efforts to enable formal textile waste recycling in Cambodia. Building on earlier technical exchanges, it provided government counterparts with first-hand insight into existing recycling operations and industry constraints.
Cambodia’s garment, footwear, and travel goods sector generates around 180,000 tonnes of textile waste annually, much of which still enters informal disposal channels such as landfills or burning—creating environmental and health risks. A key barrier to formal recycling is the current 10% VAT on waste transactions, which discourages factories from supplying licensed recyclers and limits the development of a traceable, circular system.
Discussions therefore centred on practical regulatory pathways, with stakeholders noting that revising the relevant Prakas to clarify VAT treatment would provide a more scalable solution than existing transfer mechanisms. These efforts feed into broader analytical work by EuroCham and GIZ to support evidence-based policymaking for a more sustainable recycling ecosystem.