The College of Engineering recently profiled DevEng PhD alum Paige Balcom, who was recently awarded UC Berkeley’s Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alums and served as last December’s MDevEng commencement speaker, and her social enterprise Takataka Plastics, which is transforming a plastic-waste crisis in Uganda into economic opportunity.

Founded alongside Peter Okwoko in Gulu, the company recycles PET plastics — which are typically burned or discarded — into durable, commercially viable tiles.

To date, Takataka Plastics has created 60 full-time jobs for vulnerable individuals and 250 informal roles for community collectors. Environmentally, the venture has diverted 142 tonnes of plastic waste and prevented an estimated 312 tonnes of CO2 emissions. (The story also shouts out Yifei Ding, MDevEng ’25, who did an environmental lifecycle assessment on the company.)

Supported by a recent $1 million grant, Takataka Plastics is expanding into a permanent five-acre manufacturing facility.

“The same problems with plastic waste, unemployment and the need for high-quality construction materials exist in other communities,” Balcom said. “If we can prove that Takataka Plastics in Gulu is a sustainable business model, we hope to replicate it in cities across East Africa.”