At the Plastics Recycling Show Europe which took place this week in Amsterdam, Erema CEO Manfred Hackl announced that Erema had acquired a 19.8 percent share in a young Austrian start-up called Plasticpreneur.
The Erema Group consists of a number of different companies, he said, all of which make machines for some facet of the recycling industry. The machines produced by Plasticpreneur, however, are a whole new experience. They look as if they are built by hand, and for the most part, they are.
“The company launched in 2020 and now already has grown to employ a team of 11 people. They produce machines for recycling: grinding machines, injection machines, extruders and prototyping and they have sold over 300 of their machines in more than 70 countries these few short years,” said Hackl. “To schools and companies, to create awareness by encouraging users to create plastic parts for themselves. The machines also offer small-scale solutions in areas where there is no collection system, where people bring their products – wash tubs, or other plastic items – to be recycled. It’s decentralized recycling.”
Operating the machines requires little training. They can be used in a wide variety of geographic settings with a small footprint. Their modular design makes shipping easy: shipped unassembled, they are easily assembled and set up without training.
A large number of thermoplastics can be processed with the machines, including high density polyethylene, low density PE, polypropylene, polystyrene, polylactic acid, ABS and thermoplastic urethane. Trials with bio-based materials are also being done, with the results showing that these are indeed recyclable with these machines.
