Rubber Plantation 

Rubber Tree Forest

Rubber trees originated in Brazil, but today most of the production comes from Southern Asia - including Cambodia. The trees are planted in straight rows with precise spacing between each tree. Spiral cuts are made in the tree bark (it supposedly doesn't hurt the tree), then latex leaks out of the cuts and is collected in cereal bowl. Somebody periodically goes through the tree garden, dumps the latex into a plastic bag, then molds it into an ugly white lump. The lumps are sorted and graded by quality. The lowest grade is used for tires - which is VERY reassuring at 80 mph. Higher grades are used for whatever is more important than automobile safety. We poked at the lumps and they were squishy and rubbery - just what you'd expect.

The lumps are dumped into a huge swirly vat that looks (and smells) like a sewage treatment plant swirler (not sure that's a word, but it should be). The swirler breaks the lumps into smaller lumps then sends the white sludgey stuff down skinny swimming pool lanes (about 20 inches wide and 100 feet long) to a smasher. The smasher flattens and ribs the goo and sends it up a treadmill to multiple rinsers and yankers. The rinsers and yankers clean out impurities and "yank" the goo apart into smaller chunks (about the size of a big apple fritter, but the color and texture of cheese curd). The fritters drop into a conveyor belt, go through another rinser and steamer, then are manually "poured" into rectangular metal boxes (about 18 x 30 inches x 18 inches). The boxes queue up for a smoosher which heats and compresses the fritters into yellow rectangular bricks (the bricks are the same width and length as the boxes, but the thickness has been compressed from 18 inches to about 10). A picker, using leftover dental tools from the 1940's, "picks" at the bricks to remove black spots left by the smooshers. Workers then put the finished bricks into large plastic bread bags and throw them into a pile for shipping.










I marvelled at two things. One - we were allowed to tour EVERYTHING in the plantation without supervision (Our "escort" for the tour was a 25 year-old member of our church, who also works at the plantation). We poked and picked at the stuff multiple times, and explored the entire operation without a single person telling us to "LEAVE THAT ALONE!" Granted, this wasn't a "clean room" facility - it was a large barn with open sides. No fear of contamination. And there wasn't a "safety first" sign within miles (however, there was a "no smokin" sign outside the barn).  OSHA folks would have been apoplectic (although I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned that some 18 year-old missionary would do something stupid like climb up the treadmill or try to bounce a rubber brick).

Two. The process, equipment and probably bathroom plumbing hasn't changed in about 50 years (or more). Labor is still cheap in Cambodia, so it's more cost effective to manualate rather than automate ("manualate" is in the same dictionary as swirler, yanker and smoosher). Quality control at a facility like this is a generation away (also comforting while driving 80 mph down the freeway).

We ended by visiting the plantation school. The plantation employs about 2,000 workers and has its own school for the children of employees. One of our church members teaches physics and math at the school, so we popped into his class (unannounced) and sang a couple of Christmas carols for his 17 year-old students. The kids loved it (the teacher was terrified).