Winner of the Young Entrepreneur Awards,34 year old Oscar Andres Mendez Gerardino is a go-getter Colombian out to make a tri-fold impact. The founder of Conceptos Plasticos, an enterprise that recycles plastic and transforms it into construction materials that are used to provide high-quality, safe, low-cost housing, Mendez Gerardino is impacting his country socially, economically, and environmentally.
In 2010, Mendez Gerardino decided to combine these dilemmas, creating a triple impact solution. Using an industrial process called extrusion, Conceptos Plasticos uses multilayered plastics, mixtures of different plastics and rubber to make quality construction materials. These construction materials are used to build low-cost, safe, durable housing that can be broken down and rebuilt elsewhere if necessary, kind of like lego blocks.
The process for building these economically-viable houses is incredibly simple. It takes five days for four people to assemble a house of 40 square meters. Conceptos Plasticos have built nearly 1,500 square meters of houses and shelters in several regions across Colombia and are currently obtaining permits for the construction of an additional 500 square meters in the city of Cartagena. The business has used over 300 tonnes of post-industrial and post-consumer plastics in the process. In 2016, Conceptos Plasticos aims to build 240 new homes, benefiting 1,200 people. By 2018 they plan to build 600 a year, positively impacting 3,000 people.
Mendez Gerardino’s unique idea is inspiring in its multidisciplinary fashion. By recognizing various problems, he and Conceptos Plasticos are striving to tackle a reality that is more interconnected than most businesses manage. Way to go!
Source: Conceptos Plasticos, Changemakers, Unilever Sustainable Young Entrepreneur Awards