Maquinalsa S.A.

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Maquinalsa recovers and utilizes plastic waste generated by the Colombian plantain industry and sells eco-products under the Recipelet brand. It provides a sustainable use for dangerous waste.

Market Opportunity:

• Colombia produced almost two million metric tonnes of bananas in 2008 and was the fourth largest banana exporter in the world between 2002 and 2006 during which Colombia held 10% of global banana exports.

• Although a strong componenent of the Colombian economy plantations do pose some environmental and public health problems. The plastic waste generated in plantations is vast and are often contaminated with insecticides that can be extremely damaging to humans in high concentrations. This waste is often burned for lack of landfill space or buried and forgotten about even though the plastic takes decades to degrade and the pesticides are toxic.

• Maquilas Nacionales recognized the potential for reducing the public health risk of pesticides by collecting the polyethylene bags used in plantations that are contaminated and recycling these after decontaminating them.

Unique Business Solution:

• Business Model: Maquilas Nacionales collects the plastic bags used in the plantations and converts the waste into plastic pellets(LPDE) that can be sold to the plastics industry or can be used to produce buckets and flooring products for the construction sector, water hoses, garden furniture, and more under the brand Recipelet.

• Competitive Advantage:

  • The plastic bags are cheap keeping production costs low.
  • Use plastic bags that have been contaminated with chlorpyrifos where most companies would require uncontaminated plastic bags.

Environmental and Social Impacts:

• Maquilas Nacionales recycled 864 metric tonnes of low density polyethylene in 2009 alone.

• Maquilas Nacionales has collected over 50 million plastic bags to date.

• Provides employment for dozens of people.

• The company has devised a water-free process to wash the plastic to conserve large amounts of water.

Successes:

• The plastic recycled by Recipelet has been designated “dangerous waste” by the Environmental Ministry of Colombia, making Maquilas Nacionales one of the few profitable hazardous waste recycling plants.

• Awarded the Environmental Prize for the Manufacturing Sector by the Regional Corporation of Quindio.

• Received the National Prize for Recycling from the Ministry of the Environment in 2002

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