Innovation

Vansertia concept came from the need of recover the waste from a big soybean oil company to handle all the fatty scrap from the oil extraction process and refinery.

They have been doing this since 2013 as a business model. It started just as process of recovering the fatty, separating the water from the solid and reintegrate the water to the system and sell the food to the ranches, nevertheless was a small portion they notice they can still use as a organic compost. They move one step forward and have this business relationship with the bio-digester company to generate gas. With this its founders realize the benefits to handle in a useful way for the business and the environment.

As a benefit to the community and ecosystem, we can tell the waste is well treated so that the water and the underground keep clean from this type of contamination. Also, life on land, like livestock and poultry have a healthy option of food.

With Vansertia, there is a new way of recollecting and processing the fatty and organic waste from the food industry

Inspiration

The main reason for this creation was the correct disposal of the organic material and give an option to the oil refinery to avoid any stoppage of the operation of the plant.

With these two main purposes, the idea came to flourish, looking to have enough room for process all the organic water material from the oil refinery. But by not stopping there, the company is looking to expand the oil waste treatment looking as a second stage to treat the home use oil. This will keep them to expand its horizon but also contribute to the community in a major scale.

“The only support we need from the government it’s to create awareness” this is one most important thing we as a community we have to work in, due we all have lack of knowledge in how polluting this is and just putting it in the water sewer it’s not a solution.

Overall impact

Vansertia strives to recover and process near the 1% of the oil industry waste as well as part of the 4% nominal dump residual from farming industry. Approximately 10 tons per day of fatty waste are recover and saved from the water disposal. As well Vensertia is handling great part of the animal residual waste for the incorporation to the bioreactors.

But at this moment, the project is only applicable for the northern part of Mexico. Nevertheless, this model of business can apply for many other regions of México and around the world. The model is easily replicable and wherever is a food processor industry this type of company can appear.

The short term for this project it a quick benefit for the food industry where all the water is separated from the food waste and rapidly treated and converted to animal food. The water treatment can be reintegrated to the ecosystem, which will help clean the water springs and rivers.

In the mid and long term, the organic waste can be treated to generate methane gas in the bioreactors keeping the soil from this type of waste and preventing the pollution in the underground.

Business benefit

Because the population has been increasing for the last decades, also the consumption of food processed, and oil has been increasing almost as the same speed and ruining in parallel is the organic waste that the society is generating.

Due this all this Vansertia has seen this opportunity to treat all this organic material and find a business in it, selling a part to the fatty residual from the oil to the farming industry (95% of the process can be near recover for farming food industry). This is a highly valuable product that the farming industry is looking all the time for where nearly a 2% of the residual scrap can be resell to cattle farming.

This type of waste after it is processed is highly valued. Many of the farmers in the livestock industry are really looking due it’s high caloric value for the animals. Also, many of the farmers do consider paying this in advance for this sub-product or with a short period of credit. It’s valuable to have food for the animals than having credit. Also it’s important to consider that depending of the type of product, the negotiation and the type of industry, cattle, poultry etc.. the margin of this sub-product can vary from 30% up 45%

All this operation and all these activities generate several sub-products and this food and oil waste industry generate jobs, nevertheless it has not reached its maximum level it has a great potential to upscale the quantities of jobs positions.

This organic waste industry creates at least 3 sub products, food for cattle and livestock, small particles for poultry and methane gas for the bio-digesters. And one of the most important impacts it is the clean water, the clean water integrated to the system of to the rivers it’s highly valued do its lack of fresh water sources.

Social and environmental benefit

This type of waste treatment helps the society and the community to avoid the open space waste dispose. This is another way to treat waste, which can generate a lot of bad smell and contaminate the underground. It’s very common that in certain regions the local governments opt to use this open space waste lands due it’s cheap, nevertheless immediate affectations it’s the contamination of the underground, degenerating very quickly the floral and faun in the region, so with the proper treatment of this areas the sustainable goal of Life on Land will be positively impacted as Sustainable cities and communities, because the proper use and handle of waste will prevent deforestation and avoid the contamination of fresh water springs, and prevents the growth of pests

Also, this type of waste treatment is very short term, due to the landscape quickly filling with the waste. Many people use to throw another source of garbage. It’s not the main idea of this areas and totally degenerate the purpose of waste lands, like heavy metals or plastics that are not biodegradable.

This initiative of Vansertia looks to avoid this type of organic material disposal in its waste lands and save water of more than 3,700 tons per year of residual fats. Vansertia has been considering and sees an opportunity in the kitchen oil recovery in restaurants and general commerce, because it would represent a lot of oil waste being saved form contaminating the drainage. Considering that there is a big opportunity to solve the logistic problem, the ways of job generating opportunities could be greater.

These type of activities contribute towards the SDG goal of Responsible Consumption and Production. In the short term, we can’t decrease the production of processed food but we can contribute to avoid to contaminate after we use it or consume it. So being responsible and collect our own fats and oil to properly dispose it will contribute to the community and to our living space.

Interview

Marcelo García de la Garza, Co-Founder