It’s an anniversary year for Krall Kunststoff-Recycling, a family-owned plastics recycling company located in Elsenfeld am Main, Germany. The company, founded in 1992 - well before plastics recycling had entered the consciousness of the public at large - is now celebrating 30 years in the business.
Back in 1992, the company started out by offering to relieve manufacturers and processors of their plastic residues, which were then sorted according to type and ground up. From the very beginning, executive director Markus Krall focussed mainly on transparent polycarbonate and PMMA - and it's still Krall’s core business today. Over the years, these activities expanded to include engineering plastics and the recycling of CDs.
From these modest beginnings, Krall has grown to comprise six workshops with a total floor area of 12,000 square meters. The company, which runs on solar power, employs around 40 people, is equipped with two shredding machines, and 10 chopping mills, and expects to this year reprocess some 8,000 tonnes of plastic materials.
Krall’s type-sorted regrinds are much sought-after. The company has put a complete infrastructure in place, including space-saving collection bins and logistics, for around 800 manufacturing, retail and commercial collection points across Europe. More than 15,000 load carriers from Krall are in circulation.
Today Markus Krall and his son Louis, who has also entered the family business, are working to make their company future-proof, as they see a rapidly growing market for high-quality recyclates.
“Increasing amounts require manual sorting to be supplemented by powerful automation processes. The use of robots and artificial intelligence will be helpful,” they explained.
The company also cooperates with various institutes and invests in new systems to keep abreast of developments in the market.
“Our excellent international market position enables us to promote the development of state-of-the-art technologies up to practicability,” they said.