According to records from the International Data Corporation (IDC), in 1994, 142,100 computers from brands such as IBM, Compaq or Packard Bell were sold in Colombia. Ten years earlier, there were 5,324. This invasion not only began to transform the lives of Colombians, but also saturated landfills. What to do with all these materials? The obsession with answering this question made Iván Ricardo Gómez (Bogota, 46 years old) a pioneer in the management of the country’s electrical and electronic waste.
He had completed a technical bachelor’s degree in electricity and electronics and worked at a Compaq authorized service center, while studying environmental engineering at Sena. “One of my tasks was to deliver waste to recyclers. At the time, they didn’t require disposal certificates for these materials, but I started investigating what they were doing with them in the United States, Europe and Asia, and realizing that there were interesting initiatives on good waste management,” he says.
These early investigations encouraged him to offer to his superior to allow him to take the waste home, which ultimately led him to leave Compaq and, in 1999, to create Gaia Vitare, the first Colombian company specializing in the treatment of electrical and electronic waste. He started with the three million pesos he inherited after his mother’s death. The first headquarters was the terrace of his house; the second, a 72-meter warehouse, south of Bogotá, that an uncle rented to him free of charge for the first six months. “We processed around three tonnes of copper, aluminum and a little plastic per month. The first workers were one of my brothers and two neighbors,” he remembers.
The success lies in the innovative idea of valorizing what was previously considered waste and finding a second use for components that would otherwise end up in a landfill. “We studied how to take advantage of this material and bring it back to the market, that is, we ventured into the circular economy when this concept did not yet exist.”
The first major customer to see the potential was Compaq, which in 2001 hired Gaia Vitare as a supplier for the final disposal of computers that were no longer useful. Excited by this prospect, Gómez invited his then-girlfriend, Aura Milena Melo, to join the project. “We had studied the same degree and she had a bit more experience dealing with waste.”
After obtaining her engineering degree, she obtained a scholarship to do a master’s degree and an internship in a waste management company in Germany. What he learned, he shared with Gómez to make Gaia more technical. They managed to increase their installed capacity, reaching 30 tons per month, they obtained the first environmental license from the Secretariat of the Environment of Bogotá for the final disposal and reuse of electrical and electronic waste in the country, they obtained more customers and investors and continued to increase their commercial capacity.
As of 2013, they recycled all types of devices, electronic boards, plastics, glass and even batteries, making them one of the few suppliers specializing in this type of component in the world. In addition, they opened offices in Cali and Medellín, although material processing continued in Bogotá.
But in November of the same year, Gómez and Gaia’s fortunes changed. His uncle, his wife’s brother and a third company employee died in a road accident while traveling to Cali to collect trash. “It was a very difficult time. It was surreal. We had wakes on all three floors of the funeral building. At that time there were other deaths in the family, so with Aura (whom he married in 2009) we went to a funeral almost every week, while our little girl was at home.”
Shortly afterward, these tragedies were joined by another that nearly brought him down. In 2014, his wife underwent general health checkups as they hoped to have another child. She was diagnosed with leukemia and died shortly after. “I was trying to encourage him not to leave me alone with our 2-year-old daughter. That was the goal Knock out to say: “What am I doing in this world? “, he remembers.
Six months later, after leaving the business to his partners to devote himself to his daughter and reflect on life, he returns, driven by the memory of his wife and the hope of giving his daughter a future.
Innovate without pause
In 2019, Gaia had expanded its facilities in Bogota, had around 80 workers and added to its catalog the management of refrigerant gases that affect the ozone layer and non-rechargeable batteries. In November of the same year, they obtained a license to manage hospital waste, such as expired medicines, alcohol, formalin and medical equipment. “In December, we obtained contracts with the Bogotá hospital network. This allowed us, in the midst of confinement due to the pandemic, to have a safe passage to move around and continue working,” he says. To date, this has been its best revenue year.
In 2022, they won a call from the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) to study how to continue to innovate in the circular economy, particularly in the management of plastics from automobile parts and automobiles. “We proposed to manufacture filament for 3D printing. We set up the process and a laboratory with the support of the Plastics and Rubber Training and Research Institute. We transformed the housings of refrigerators, televisions and washing machines into different filaments with which we manufactured, among other things, prosthetics for disabled people,” he explains. The research project, entrusted to the Ministry of the Environment, has been widely recognized.
But at the end of the year, a fire destroyed 75% of the company’s infrastructure. Its magnitude was such that it generated a column of smoke that forced El Dorado Airport to close for seven hours and it took firefighters 72 hours to put out the fire. Gómez took a week to talk to authorities, neighbors, investors, suppliers and workers, and began looking for a way to rebuild the business. “I said to myself: ‘I have the experience, the training, there are the customers, the workers and the suppliers who support us.’ I looked at the sky, I talked to God and I said, ‘Let’s do it,'” he said.
The challenge was enormous: “Who is going to invest in a company that has just caught fire, is experiencing a loss of assets and is on the verge of bankruptcy? he asked. It occurred to him to negotiate with the insurance company to take care of cleaning the land and removing the debris. “We made 350 million from this work, which is what another company would have made. Plus, we had all the recycling left over, which we then charged for.” With better prospects, in 2023, he knocked on the door of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to sponsor the reconstruction of Gaia. “It was very similar to the entrepreneurship program Shark tank“, he recalls. They liked the proposal and, in 2024, they visited the facilities. “They gave us two million dollars,” he says.
Today, thanks to this funding, Gaia Vitare processes 160 tonnes of waste per month, has 120 employees, collaborates with more than 500 recyclers and is working on the adaptation of a research laboratory and a “vertiport” for drones. Before the fire, his factory measured 3,600 square meters, today it is 7,500. “The headquarters we are building is safer and more beautiful,” he says.
Gómez says she inherited the spirit of resilience from her mother, a woman who was the head of her family and worked very hard all her life, and that she reinforced it in the environment in which she grew up. “When I was a child, I was an ice cream seller on the street. In the neighborhood where I grew up, there was a drug distribution center and criminal groups. 99% of the people my age that I grew up with are dead or in prison,” he says. He was able to see in study and in his analytical and creative mind the possibility of moving forward. Today, he continues to rely on that same thing to get through life’s good and difficult times.
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