Explosives Recycling Creates Innovative Solution For Cambodian Land Mines

KAMPONG CHHNANG, CAMBODIA - JUNE 3: A Golden West team member drills small holes into completed charges, so that detonator cords can be inserted on June 3, 2014 in Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia. Three decades of wars have left Cambodia with the legacy of a countryside littered with an estimated six million pieces of unexploded ordinance, such as land mines, cluster munitions, and artillery shells. The country is home to roughly forty thousand amputees, the majority of whom are victims of unexploded ordinance. With the help of foreign aid, non-profit organizations have been working to clear these dangerous relics, the high cost of such operations has slowed the progress towards a full recovery. Recently, a new process developed by former American military personnel working for the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, has made strides towards providing a low-cost solution. Through a secret chemical process, the organization has been able to recycle the explosive compounds from recovered munitions into small and stable charges which can be used to destroy dangerous unexploded ordinance. The technology has already destroyed an estimated 300 000 pieces of unexploded ordinance in Cambodia. Arguably the world's cheapest method of bomb disposal, Golden West's strategy has sparked interest in the American Department of State, and is on the way to becoming a widely employed method for removing land mines and other explosives around the world. (Photo by Luc Forsyth/Getty Images)