Company of the month
Styrians recover valuable raw materials from plastic waste
Only 8.3 percent of the world's plastics are made from recycled plastic. This already bothered Markus Bauer and Daniel Schwabl during their time at the Montanuniversität Leoben - today they are jointly developing systems for separating waste. They were named Company of the Month by SFG for their vision.
It all began with a clever idea from two doctoral students at the University of Leoben: Markus Bauer and Daniel Schwabl had studied process engineering with an environmental focus and now harboured the vision of revolutionizing the recycling of plastic. "We've actually been digging through garbage for over ten years and trying to extract something valuable," says Bauer with a grin.
The simple but efficient concept is to separate plastics according to density. To do this, they have transferred a coal processing technology to plastic waste. "We were already working on this during our doctoral studies and recognized the potential," says Bauer. In August 2020, the two-man company called "Circulyzer" was founded as a spin-off from Montanuni. And now, almost four years later, the Styrian Business Promotion Agency has crowned it Company of the Month.
The two entrepreneurs offer a service that is becoming increasingly important in view of the mountains of waste: "We develop, plan and build systems for washing and separating plastics," explains Bauer. This is because only sorted raw materials can then be recycled instead of incinerated. To date, just 8.3 percent of plastic products worldwide are made from recycled plastic.
How a plastic bottle gets a second chance
Bauer takes a plastic bottle as an example: this is made largely of PET, a very valuable material. However, the lid and label stick to it and have to be removed first. A separating medium, such as water, is used for this. The lid of the drinks bottle then floats up and the PET sinks down. However, waste components made of mixed materials such as plastic and paper can also be separated.
The corresponding model plant is located in Leoben - but the two managing directors are currently also building a smaller and larger version of the plant. They soon want to expand their portfolio and take on more employees. "We have a bit of an idealistic view and want to make a contribution to the circular economy," says Bauer. They are certain: Circulyzer knows the most efficient and economical way to separate plastics.
Every month, SFG puts forward three candidates for Company of the Month. They introduce themselves in a video. Everyone can then vote at unternehmen-des-monats.at.
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