Colombian firm offers environmentally friendly waste management

MS Compactadoras y Equipos, founded here two years ago, has positioned itself in the environmental sector with its industrialized and all-purpose home compactors that facilitate the handling of solid waste with technological solutions that result in better waste storage and convenient transport of trash.

The company’s owner, engineer Daniel Gonzalez Henao, identified an opportunity in the market by noting that several landfills around the country “will collapse” in a short time, which will complicate the handling of garbage.

“We have almost exhausted the useful life of the landfills. And by 2030 we won’t have anywhere to store 80 percent of all garbage,” Gonzalez told EFE.

MS has manufactured equipment that has “a waste-exploitation potential of around 3,000 tons per month,” he said.

He also pointed out that, on average, a person generates 800 grams (about 1.75 pounds) of garbage per day and, given the current scenario, there is an urgent need to improve logistics by reducing the volume of solid waste so that recycling can be viable and become a productive process in and of itself.

According to figures from the National Planning Department (DNP), 11.6 million tons of garbage are produced in Colombia each year and only 17 percent are recycled.

Knowing this figure, Gonzalez identified the profile that his company would have, after 10 years ago while - while still a student - creating his first compactor at the request of a client.

“I made a very serious study and decided to bet on the development of a standardized line of hydraulic compactors,” he said.

The engineer and his nine employees managed to put three product lines on the market to meet different buyers’ needs and generate a greater impact.

Gonzalez said that there is “a huge number of needs” that these teams will start to address, including facilitating both the transport and storage of solid waste.

In acknowledgment of Gonzalez’s work, the business incubator Corporacion Interactuar presented MS Compactors with its innovation award.