jose rolando montano
Nydia Muñoz
Julian Neira Rodriguez
Universidad Externado de Colombia
Gustavo A Yepes López
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For each ton of steel produced, the Colombian steel companies produce 125 Kg of Scoria. Monthly a Steel Company produces 35000 Tons of Steel on average, so monthly they are generating 4.3 Tons of Scoria. In Colombia there are currently five Steel Companies operating, two in the Boyaca Department.
The Scoria is an aggregate made to oxides: calcium oxide, silicon oxide, magnesium oxide and iron oxide.
For this, the material is very strong, wear resistant and high density, very difficult to destroy, according to laboratory tests the scoria is not toxic.
Nowadays, the disposition for this scrap is burial, in cells building specially for this process, but then the land cannot used for agriculture or cattle raising
The innovation is the use the scoria instead of burial, BB Equipos Topograficos process the scrap, recuperate steel for the steel Company and the residual “Black Scoria” is used to made brick Lego for building.
The Company built a Wall with 2000 Brick Lego and now, they are building a Recycle Factory with this material and prefabricated houses for homeless.
Jose Barajas had the idea. He is an innovator who defines himself as a person who does no like doing things the same way that others; perseverance and zeal. His business of triturarion let him visit Steel companies frequently, so, one day while he was waiting for a Customer, he saw a mountain of scoria and people recycling the small Steel pieces in the material, he thought that he can improve the recuperation process. He searched for the equipment, invested 3.6 dollars million, and signed a contract with the most important Steel Company in Colombia to recuperate scoria. After the process the steel will be returned the Steel Company and the black scoria will be buried. He said “first, we did 500 tons to 18.75 USD/Ton, started to work in improve the quality and development new Projects to achieve 7000 ton by month with the expected purity for the Steel Company, in six month we started to got profit and learned to recycle the material”.
After, he replicated the model with another Steel Company, who let him propose alternatives for the scoria manipulation, he remember “in a Germany trip, I saw the Brick Legos model of Beton Block, I brought the moldes and started to try… a day they decided (the Steel Company) to build a Wall for encircle the production site, so, I proposed the Customer doing that with lego format, started the Project and finished with a Wall built with 20.000 brick legos, so I thought, what more can we be doing with the scoria? Nowadays, we built the pavement the highway Bogota-Sogamoso and started the prefabricated houses Project”.
Jose wanted to dabble in the plastic and glass recycle, these material are generate in the Steel Company, too, with this he wait to have a house 100% recycle, “I want to go the Home Fair with a prefabricated house made from 100% recycled materials”.
He Said: “I think that the future is recycling…. There is: in the garbage, I saw a reportaje, they said that the garbage is a treasure, but is necessary to invest in technology, I do not loss an exterior fair, because there is where there are the technology, my Company is successful because we innovated”.
With this Project the Steel Companies have decreased their enviromental liabilities with a material consider inert, all the material generated in the casting process is being reprocessed “sometimes the scoria is runs out after that was a garbage, before there were 400.000 tons of garbage, today we fought for these, that is a successful”, also the product that is produced is the first quality, “we do not sell garbage, we sell a first quality product, this aggregate gives more resistant to concrete”, Jose Said: “all that be for the nature is a plus”.
This Project have an impact in three global goals:
8. Good Jobs and Economic Growth
9. Innovation and Infraestructure
11. Sustainible Cities and Communities
The Company increased their sales. Nowadays participation is around 30%. The company's profit was invested in a new Factory for recycle and production of building aggregate in the Tocaima City, “this site is a blessing, all waste will be reuse”. With this production site, the Company will increase participation to 80%, they are the first in the market in this business, so, there is a competitive advantage.
The benefit is for the customers too, who now have a process that can show to the environmental regulatory, “is beautiful the process, before this industry only polluted, now people are surprised with what we made with the garbage."
The site production for Lego and prefabricated house generate 45 employments formal direct “we employing a lot of people, we have three shifts, 15 people by shifts, in general women, she is more careful, mothers head of household in Tuta (small Town), it is social”
With prefabricated house, He want into the projects to houses for poor people and give benefits to employee “imagine that you said to employee: to buy the land and I give you the house”.
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JOSE BARAJAS, INNOVATIVE
BB Equipos Topograficos SAS was founded in 1997, dedicated to commercialization of equipment of topography and machinery, since then the Company has grown to become a big supplier in this sector in Colombia. In 2018 they got the certification ISO 9001:2015, demonstrating their commitment to quality. In 2012, they incorporated a new business line: building aggregate based on an innovation process for recuperate “scoria”, a sub-product from steel industry. This process has been incorporated in the mission “processing scoria and recuperate materials with products and services innovators” and the visión “Consolidate to BB Equipos Topograficos now an industry leader…. Processing scoria and recuperate materials across our experience, human talent, quality and technology”, declaring with this their commitment to the environment and society.