5 partnerships with individuals and/or organization have been formed or could be formed to advance the venture

Jonathan Co and Sentinel Upcycling

• What constituted the partnership?–>The partnership is constituted based on the idea that Jonathan Co will buy the plastic our facilities shredded and then turn them into new products. Furthermore, the partnership has developed into Jonathan Co giving us plastic samples from the Philippines, so we can do our own mechanical and chemical tests which will in turn help him and Sentinel Upcycling make informed decisions on their products.
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?–> Jonathan Co gave us the shredded plastic, the plastic samples for us, and information about the plastic upcycling ecosystem that helped with our research papers. He also agreed to buy our plastic at friends and family rate. We helped him by doing extra research for him as well as working with UPA in a more direct way.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?–>This was partially a symbiotic relationship because we certainly each provide each other with goods and services. We provide Sentinel Upcycling with a steady supply of cleaned and shredded sachet plastic, and they agree to buy our products and help with our research. However, Sentinel already has other partnerships that they buy recycled plastic from, so we need them more than they need us.

• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable? → If we did more research or upgraded more MRFs that provide Jonathan Co and Sentinel Upcycling more value, then we will have more bargaining power. Even more so, we will also be trusted and seen as more of a valid partner who actually has something to provide. On the opposite side, Sentinel could continue providing us with connections to various plastic recycling companies throughout the Philippines, which could enable us to potentially find more sites to upgrade and clients to get money from.

Urban Poor Associates

• What constituted the partnership?–> The partnership arose over this summer through our mutual partnership with Sentinel Upcycling. We were writing a grant and needed a partner who was willing to “steward” the project in-country. Jonathan Co recommended Urban Poor Associates. We met with UPA over the Summer in the Philippines and have worked together to look into upgrading their MRF in Baseco.
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?–> This partner helped us by facilitating our relationship with the area of Baseco. UPA not only informed us on Baseco’s MRF progress but also helped write us a letter saying that the community would look after the project if we received the grant we were working on. UPA also introduced us to community leaders and gave us very meaningful information about the MRF and the community. We helped them by giving them some information about plastic recycling outside of Baseco, and we were able to tell them some of the more scientific research we have done on microplastics, chemical and mechanical properties, and policy.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?–>This is a very new partnership, but so far, it has been rather symbiotic. UPA has provided us with the connections and information necessary for us to work with Baseco and help upgrade their MRF. We have in turn provided them with our own resources including looking to write grants with them, sharing our research about plastic policy and characteristics, and communication with other outside stakeholders. This relationship may become more symbiotic in the future if there is something more specific we are giving to them on a consistent basis.
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable? → This partnership would be strengthened if we could have more consistent communication with UPA, especially those contacting us. Currently, we often have to reach out for something very specific, but that makes it harder to keep a consistent relationship. It could also become more equitable if we can bring research that specifically helps UPA’s work in Baseco or we can bring in some other resources (financial, human, etc.). Currently, UPA has done most of the groundwork which is not necessarily equitable.

 

Resiklo Machining Company

• What constituted the partnership?–> They are a reliable company that makes plastic recycling/processing machines for a variety of applications and scales. This is a good partner for us to have because they make relatively cheap (and seemingly pretty reliable) equipment in the country. As a result, we foresee all of our upgrades using these machines as the backbone for our plastic recycling processes. The value we could provide them is money of course from buying their equipment but potentially also more connections that we have (which could translate into more buyers for them).
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?–> This partnership helps us because they supply equipment that we could use in the facilities/locations that we upgrade. This is very helpful for us because it costs us (relatively) less than it would be for us to get it from an out-of-country supplier and have it shipped to the Philippines. We can easily stay in contact with them, deepening the partnership and stay updated about what new machines they are making. We will serve as a buyer for their equipment and also provide them with other buyers from the partners that we connect them with.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?–> This is a pretty symbiotic relationship because our roles are very well defined. We can either buy or not buy their equipment. They can either continue to make products and sell them at our prices or not. As a result, we see this partnership being very strong and easily maintainable. As long as we keep buying their equipment and they keep agreeing to sell equipment to us at the agreed upon prices, our relationship will be easy to sustain..
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable? → This relationship could be strengthened and become more equitable if we developed some form of contract or consistent buying practices from Resiklo. While we are partners, Resiklo could theoretically change the prices or specifications of their machines at any point, which could completely endanger our own efforts to upgrade MRFs. They have all of the power in terms of the machines, so the partnership would be more equitable if we had agreement in place for pricing. Furthermore, Resiklo also having some “skin in the game” with our MRFs could strengthen the partnership because we will each want the MRFs to succeed.

 

University of the Philippines-Diliman

• What constituted the partnership?–> Since UPD is the biggest university in the Philippines and is well-known for its Material Science Faculty, we need to partner with them since we have been developing research on recycled plastic characterization. To be more specific, our main partner is Professor Lao at the Polymer Science Department. It would be interesting for them to be known on an international scale, such as at Lehigh University.
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?–> In the fieldwork, we had meetings with Professor Tiffany Lao to discuss Chemical Characterization Research, who gave great insights on how to analyze the FTIR, DSC, and TGA tests.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?–>  This is not a symbiotic relationship yet. Since the goal of using the Laboratory of Material Science at UPD to add additives such as short glass fiber was not reached due to the time remaining in the Philippines, we could not write a paper with Professor Lao and add her name to it.
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable? →  To strengthen the partnership it would be necessary to have at least monthly meetings with Material Science Professors at UPD to share how other parts of the research are going and they could review and give us insights; Thus, their names could be added to our paper.

HEED Students

• What constituted the partnership?–> This partnership arose because the HEED program at the University of the Philippines-Diliman is a very similar program to GSIF at Lehigh. Each program focuses on building impact in communities through sustainable entrepreneurship. The partnership has developed over the years so that each year, there is a corresponding HEED team to the PlasTech team at Lehigh, and we work together over the course of the year.
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?–>The partner helped us by providing us information about how plastic impacts students at UPD. We usually can only research plastic pollution’s macro-effects, so the HEED students gave us a different perspective on how plastic pollution impacts every-day Filipino citizens. Furthermore, the HEED students wrote a research paper discussing how PlasTech’s upgrades could be implemented and how they could improve current plastic recycling efforts in the Philippines. We have helped them by sharing our own research about the mechanical and chemical properties of recycling sachet plastic. We have also shared our partnerships and progress, especially our work with Sentinel Upcycling, with the HEED students.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?–>  Yes, because we are providing them with information and we organize online meetings with them. Meanwhile, they are helping us by writing a paper regarding plastic pollution in the Philippines.
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable? → This partnership would be strengthened by more consistent communication. We sometimes go long periods of time without any interaction with the HEED students, and we often have minimal ideas about what exactly the students are working on. The partnership could be strengthened and more equitable if we created more consistent deadlines and goals for each other. This change would allow us to hold each other accountable and know what to expect from each other. We may also have better results from having these goals.

 

Provide at least 2 compelling and specific examples of how you might engage with each of the 11 types of organizations that we discussed in class.

Multilaterals

• Apply for a grant from the United Nations Environment Programme, specifically in relation to their work on climate justice and pollution. While the UN sees these two items as separate issues, we see them as a part of the same problem as pollution disproportionately harms people of lower income and hurts their environment more.
• ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), founded in 1967 at the initiative of its member states, is the primary multilateral in Southeast Asia that  would allow us broad access to stakeholders across Southeast Asia to create impact. We could work with ASEAN to expand our MRF upgrades and research outside of the Philippines as all of Southeast Asia suffers from sachet waste.

Government Agencies

• Talk to government officials in the Philippines like Quezon City for example. Try to find a connection through UPD and organize some kind of education/research related topic to attack plastic waste from. There are various barangay leaders and legislators in the regional/city-wide we could potentially contact
• Talk to more local government agencies on a barangay by barangay level. Talk to government officials in the areas that we want to upgrade with our system. Try to start at a low level, and work our way up the bureaucracy of government officials. Could also try to jump up that ladder through our various connections (like Jonathan Co)

Non-profits

• We have been partnering with the Urban Poor Association, which oversees the MRF at Baseco. Thus, we can strengthen this partnership by listening to their needs and getting the necessary machinery to enhance the MRF results.
• Many non-profit organizations are focused on the environment and plastic recycling, such as The Plastic Flamingos based in the Philippines. A partnership with them could result in a higher amount of plastic being collected and used to create other products. This could make space for a wide growth in the economic scene of the stakeholders involved in this process.

Foundations

• We could engage with Rotary Clubs in the Philippines, since they provide grants to bring service project ideas involving the world’s biggest problems to life. In this way, we could utilize the resources to buy a washer, shredder, and a dryer not only for the Baseco MRF, but also for other vulnerable MRF’s across Manila.
• WWF is one of the biggest Environmental Foundations in the world that supports vulnerable communities and brings environmental justice to them. They provide not only resources but support for projects to enhance their impact.

Academia

• We could engage more with Mindanao State University (MSU) which is a university in the very south of the Philippine archipelago in the island of Mindanao. Mindanao faces similar plastic challenges to Metro Manilla, but there are some key differences due to climate and demographics that could be helpful to learning more about for our venture.
• We can work with Lehigh’s own polymer research including Dr. Luciana Arronche who runs the program. By leveraging our resources at home, we can create more immediate impact especially with our research. We can then use the information we learn from Lehigh to work with MSU and UPD in the Philippines.

Social Ventures

• Berdeng Kalabaw is a good social venture in the Philippines that is also trying to tackle the plastic waste crisis. They are working on local plastic collection centers where they try to segregate and then sell the collected plastic to upcyclers. We could try to upgrade some of their facilities with our system. We both are approaching the same issue from different angles so a partnership could potentially be very mutually beneficial
• We can work with the organization Kabalikat in the Philippines. Kabalikat worked with Urban Poor Associates in Baseco. However, Kabalikat runs a variety of social ventures in Baseco outside of the MRF which is how we can immediately work with them by providing them more machines and research to make their facility more efficient. They also run social ventures regarding rice, a mangrove forest, and rainwater harvesting. Working with Kabalikat would give us more local legitimacy and let us expand our venture.

Think Tanks

• We can work with the Philippines Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). PIDS is technically affiliated with the Filipino government, but it is their main socio-economic think tank. We can partner with them by demonstrating how plastic pollution disproportionately harms people of lower-income, and it would vastly improve the Filipino economy to invest more in anti-plastic pollution efforts including our MRFs. Less plastic pollution means more available land. Our MRFs could also allow individual Filipinos to make money from waste.
• We could also work with the Circular Innovation Lab, which is a think tank started in Denmark but has recently partnered with the UN Development Programme to promote circular economies around the world. This would be a way to expand our venture outside of the Philippines and ensure our venture creates a curricular economy, which is one of our primary goals.

K-12 System

• One of the most important steps for every Environmental Project is to raise environmental awareness. Thus, in the Baseco area, we could partner with a public school to teach K-12 students not only about plastic pollution and its impacts on the environment and public health, but also how plastic can be an economic opportunity. To do so, it would need to partner with the Philippine Government to develop lecture content.
• We can also partner with k-12 schools in the Quezon City area, specifically near UPD. UPD already engages their local community, so we could leverage our partnership with UPS to work with local k-12 schools and develop pro-recycling programs that teaches the kids about the crisis of sachet plastic waste and why they should bring their waste to our MRFs.

Corporations

• We have already worked with Sentinel Upcycling and could expand our partnership by working with their parent company Manly Plastics, which is one of the main plastic manufacturers in Southeast Asia. We could leverage our connection with Sentinel to have Manly Plastics give us more information about plastic recycling and potentially some agreement with Manly over them using our recycled plastic in their products.
• There are a variety of corporations who already make pledges on plastic waste, but Coca-Cola represents a solid path forward for partnership. Coca-Cola already works with another one of our partners, Envirotech, and has spent large amounts of money to stay in line with the new EPR law in the Philippines. We could leverage Coca-Cola’s needs to stay in line with EPR regulations and retain a good public image by having them send their plastic waste to our facilities where we can shred, clean, and sell the plastic.

Consulting Firms

• Partnering with a consulting firm such as McKinsey & Company, that has knowledge about plastic waste can be useful for our venture. This firm has in-depth research regarding the global plastic waste crisis and sustainable packaging thus could give us a better understanding of this issue and ways to solve it.
• Envirotech Waste Recycling is a company that offers “sustainable business solutions” for plastic waste. They take collected plastic and turn it into furniture and other products. They also work with other companies on handling plastic waste. They could potentially be a great partner for us and we are pretty sure we had a Zoom meeting with their CEO

Startups

• In order to purchase the Shredder and other machines such as the washer and dryer to optimize the work done at Baseco MRF, we could partner with Resiklo. It is important to mention that the owners of the Startup are UPD’s students, which is also one of our partners.
• Even though Junkshops are not officially start ups by Western definitions, they are still businesses that serve the community. In this way, we could partner with Junkshops around Manila by paying them for the sachet collected; In this way, they would be more willing to collect this type of plastic from the environment.