Kickstart: Making things from trash

Paige Balcom knows how to make things. In middle school, she was an "inventioneer" who was part of a winning team in the 2010 FIRSTLEGO League World Championship. As a student at the University of New Hampshire, she joined Engineers Without Borders and won a Fulbright scholarship, work that allowed her time to study ways to improve the environment in Uganda.

Now Takataka Plastics, a venture she co-created with Peter Okwoko in Uganda, is in the final stages of a business to recycle PET bottles into multicolored tiles that can be used in place of ceramic tiles on floors and walls. The project also won a Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, worth $15,000.

While PET is easy to recycle in developed areas, Balcom noted in a video about the project that Uganda and other countries lack the industrial equipment to successfully convert bottles for use in new bottles. But Takataka's small-scale program melts down the PET and uses the material for tiles, which decreases litter while creating new business opportunities.

"Takataka Plastics addresses the massive recycling issue while creating opportunities for marginalized street youth," the company notes. "The company established waste plastic collection sites and monthly neighborhood cleanups, and hires street-connected youth to prepare the PET plastic for processing and operate the machines that recycle plastic into consumer products."

You've heard marketing claims from consumer products about sustainable packaging. Maybe you're even involved in a project to make products recyclable or use bio-based or recycled material. But do consumers care?

Our sister paper Advertising Age has a story via Survey Monkey on its new study asking consumers about their interest in sustainable products.

Among its findings: 44 percent of consumers say they care about environmental issues much more today than they did a year ago, and nearly 80 percent said they purchased items that met their personal values within the past year.

In addition, more than 95 percent of consumers said they were confused by the recycling system, which means that companies would be best to follow a simple rule related to sustainable packaging: keep it simple. Do it right, though, and you may be able to sell more, with "more than three-quarters of consumers said it's worth it to pay more for environmentally friendly products."

And while we're talking sustainability and plastics, the newest issue of our sister publication Sustainable Plastics is now available for downloading.

SP Editor Karen Laird has the ability to go into much more detail on topics such as the role of mold making, chemical recycling and even how legislation is impacting the industry in the issues. There's also content only available in digital issues.

In the March/April issue, Karen notes how the the pandemic has allowed 3D printing technology to finally break through to wide use, filling in when supply chains failed.

You can access the digital edition here.