GREEN ROOF EFFECT - ProMéxico

28 Negocios photos courtesy of tecnosilicatos de méxico
Reinventing refuse
Tecnosilicatos de México has made managing waste into
a tidy business opportunity.
By Jennifer Chan
When talking about the proverbial dirty job
that someone has to do, companies like Tecnosilicatos
de México are taking a clean step
forward in that effort.
The company was started in 2005 with
an initial investment of nearly 400 million
usd from a group of Mexico City businessmen
who wanted to promote alternative solutions
for the sustainable and comprehensive
management of waste.
“We are promoting the closure of all
landfills since it’s been clearly demonstrated
they immediately become a long lasting environmental
liability that emit gases leading
to climate change and are unhealthy. They
also emit impurities that contaminate surface
waters as well as groundwater, affecting
the health of those living in these areas,” said
Rogelio López López, founding partner, vice
president and director of construction and
operations for Tecnosilicatos de México.
Currently, the company operates in the
metropolitan zone in the Valley of Mexico (in
the Mexico City area). It has 175 direct employees
and each day receives more than 1,000
tons of non-hazardous trash. The company anticipates
that figure will increase to 4,500 tons
per day by the third quarter of 2009.
The Tultitlán Project
In 2005, the recently started company received
much publicity due to its relationship
with the municipal government of Tultitlán,
in Estado de México. The two entities partnered
on two projects: the technological
management of an open-air dump that had
been closed for 20 years and the sanitation
of land where a chemical firm had operated.
“Tultitlán had two grave environmental
problems: a dump and the environmental liability
of land where the company Cromatos de
México had operated, leaving hundreds of tons
of Hexavalent Chromium in the subsoil and contaminating
the water table,” said López López.
After getting an estimate from Tecnosilicatos
de México, the municipality’s government
had the company sanitize Cromatos
de México’s property and reopen the dump
to transform it into a controlled landfill. But
this had to be done without affecting the municipality’s
finances.
The intention was to reduce the percentage
of waste located in the landfill and
increase its value by up to 80% through
technology, equipment and industrial processes.
The technologies selected for this
goal included the mechanical separation of
trash, and the smashing, mineralization and
gasification of it to create energy.
Investment in this project was nearly 4.3 million
usd and in 2009 it’s expected to increase to
10 million usd. To date, the project has created
a controlled landfill with a capacity of 1 million
tons of trash and constructed a conversion plant
that will begin operating in 2009. Currently, a
temporary trash warehouse, with a capacity to
receive 15 million tons in its first stage, is being
built. The facility, set to be completed in 2012,
will work with plants that convert waste.
López commented that after the Tultitlán
project different companies from large metropolitan
areas –like Invercoba in Jalisco–,
are looking to duplicate models that comprehensively
manage waste and reduce its negative
effects on the environment and health.
Looking to the Future
Among the company’s short and medium
term projects are: the daily collection of 5,000
tons of waste from the metropolitan zone of
Above The rough material at Tultitlán.
the Valley of Mexico as well as from regions in
the northern and western part of the country;
the construction of waste conversion plants
that will use 2,500 tons on a daily basis and the
creation of partnerships with leading companies
in the cleaning industry.
Other areas Tecnosilicatos de México is
thinking of focusing hard in are the generation
of electricity through thermal processes by using
sustainable technology and the creation of
land for agricultural and forestry use through
the mineralization of organic waste.
“Natural resources are finite, the same as fossil
fuels,” said López. “Recycling targets all those
potentially reusable materials. The development
of technologies, equipment and processes
that eliminate contaminants from harmful
waste cast into the atmosphere, soil and subsoil
can benefit all of us.” n
With a little help from their friends
These are some of the international companies
that have worked with Tecnosilicatos de México
to make trash more useful.
Biogas Technology (England)
Construction of biogas collection wells and
a system for transporting, cleaning and
burning it. The company is also taking part
in the evaluation process for the United
Nation’s Program for the Development of
Cleaning Mechanisms (for the payment
of carbon bonds).
Proleben (Mexico) Environmental
auditoriums, municipal and state projects for
environmental closure and management.
Untha Shreeders (Austria)
Compacting equipment for the appraisal
of waste.
X Products GMBH (Germany)
Technology for the mineralization of
dangerous organic and inorganic waste, and
the creation of glass without contaminants
and that is reusable for different processes.
Imabe Iberica (Spain)
Equipment for plants that select, compact
and crush.
GPEC (Canada)
Gasification and generation of electricity.