MUTA - Colombia

Muta (Reaceico SAS) is a Colombian circular economy company that collects and recycles Used Cooking Oil (UCO) produced from vegetable seeds. With operations in 10 cities in Colombia and a central warehouse in northern Colombia, Muta processes, cleans, packages, and exports the UCO mainly to the United Kingdom, where recycled UCO is transformed into biofuel. The company is fully owned by Mr. Alejandro Caiaffa, a known actor of environmental and social change in the North region of Colombia with more than eight years’ experience in the recycling industry. While a relatively young company, the company had received capex and working capital from main banks in Colombia to support company growth an increase capacity for processing and storage UCO for export. Harris Tobias Ltd. its main client based in the United Kingdom, is a known buyer of recycled fats and oils and has been buying to Muta for the past years. The client had also provided advances for sourcing more UCO, showing a strong commitment between both parties.

The company collects UCO mainly from hotels, restaurants, and café’s using a mobile app end to end throughout its value chain. The operational model starts with the generators request for collection where a collection date is set (through an app), and the UCO is collected at the generator premises with a company truck. Muta certifies the orderly collection of UCO to the generator as the company itself is officially certified to do so. Once collected, the UCO is cleaned/filtered to remove impurities, and a moisture check is performed. The recycled oil is stored in tanks and exported. As of 2021, Muta collected from more than 2,000 generators, mainly restaurants. International clients use refineries that allow UCO as raw material to produce biodiesel or other complementary bioenergy products.

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