Paige co-founded Takataka Plastics, a social enterprise that provides recycling services and creates polyethylene terephthalate (PET) tiles out of plastic waste while creating jobs in the waste management sector.
Takataka Plastics began in 2020 after she met her co-founder, Peter Okwoko, from Northern Uganda. Together, they developed the idea of turning the recycling of plastic soda and water bottle waste into employment opportunities. Previously, these PET bottles were often burned or left on the streets because they were hard to recycle and had low value. Under the Takataka Plastics model, waste is collected by community collectors, processed in a recycling plant, and turned into products such as tiles that are more durable than ceramics.
The social enterprise has recycled 156,000 kilogrammes of plastic, which over a lifetime is estimated to have mitigated $31,200,000 in greenhouse gas emission costs on ecosystem services of marine ecosystems, and direct waste management. Takataka Plastics has employed 60 full-time staff members, who receive daily meals to prevent malnutrition, and 250 community waste collectors. Many of the initiative’s full-time employees are survivors of trauma associated with the Lord’s Resistance Army under Joseph Kony or with street life, and the model helps address unemployment by providing stable jobs. Takataka Plastics also provides staff members with life skills training, counselling, and conflict resolution services. The enterprise is currently in the process of building Takataka Village, a full manufacturing facility, office, and training institute set on five acres of land.
At the 2024 Summit in Montréal, Paige benefited from additional programming, including a pre-Summit workshop where she got to meet other cohort members and present her project. She remains connected with this group of scholars, who she says continue to support each other as nonprofit and social enterprise founders.
“I was really fortunate to be part of the Audi Environmental Foundation Scholarship. We had extra training, extra sessions, and close community. We still keep in touch, check-in, and encourage each other’s journeys.”
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