Returnee determined to keep Savannakhet rubbish free

An American of Lao orgin who moved to the US with his family at the age of seven has since returned and carved out a successful business in the collection and disposal of garbage in Savannakhet province.
Mr Putt Amphonephong, who owns the Lao Waste Management Development Sole Company Limited, returned to Laos at the age of 30 with the aim of starting a business. Mr Putt, who was born in Vientiane province, hopes his company will help to develop his homeland.
After graduating from high school in the US he married a Lao-born lady living there and they had four children.
When he returned to Laos, he saw an opportunity to start a business dealing in luxury cars and heavy vehicles used for construction.

The owner of the Lao Waste Management Development Sole Company Limited, Mr Putt Amphonephong, explains how he manages his landfill and refuse management business.

He ordered many cars and they sold well for about five years. Then his business suffered a setback due to a drop in demand when the government adjusted the prices of the vehicles.
When he was selling heavy trucks, Mr Putt used to travel to Attapeu province and often drove through Savannakhet province, where he saw a lot of garbage by the roadside because no one ever collected it. 
So he decided to go into the business of garbage collection to ensure that Savannakhet would be cleaned up.
Other people weren’t interested in this line of work but Mr Putt decided to try his luck and launched a new business two years ago.
“I asked Savannakhet officials to give me an opportunity as I was really interested in collecting garbage to help keep towns clean. Then I got this chance from the authorities and I proved that I was up to the job. I took just two days to remove the litter after the That Inghang stupa festival. It used to take other rubbish crews over a week to take it all away.”
“During the boat racing festival, I placed bins along the banks of the river so it would be easier to collect the litter and put it in trucks.”
Mr Putt’s company currently collects garbage in towns across the province.
More than 530 houses have registered with his company with each paying at least 20,000 kip a month for their rubbish to be collected once a week. The trucks haul this garbage to a landfill on the outskirts of the city.
His firm currently collects more than 100 tonnes of garbage a day to dump in the landfill.
Mr Putt said he estimates there are more than 12,000 houses in his area but a lot of people are careless about how they dispose of their garbage. Some people throw it into rivers while others burn it or dump it by the roadside.
“We are different from other people who do not properly dispose of their rubbish. We hope the local authorities and the public will cooperate with us to keep our towns clean. People should not throw their garbage along the roads or into rivers,” he said.
“Laos can develop quickly if projects are assigned to the right people. I have invested billions of kip in my garbage collection business to keep the towns in this province clean.”
Mr Putt said he makes very little money from the payments made by home-owners and from recycling and selling some of the garbage. But he sees cleanliness as being essential and wants local residents to understand what his company is aiming to achieve.
“This isn’t only for my benefit. If local people don’t cooperate, we will no longer be able to collect their rubbish and improve their neighbourhoods,” he said.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update December 22, 2017 )