Innovation

Nowadays, many recycling companies exist worldwide. Their business model is cleaning the plastic and selling it to the plastic industry. These industries combine the recycled agglomerate with virgin plastic material. Hahn Kunststoffe is different! They have a much longer value chain: They recycle the plastic waste, but also produce and sell new products. This results in a far better CO2 footprint! Having all these steps in the value chain in their own hands, Hahn Kunststoffe can produce sustainable and ecological products.

As Hahn Kunststoffe receives various kinds of plastic waste by quality and type, they can produce different pellets. The advantage of a pellet is that several kinds of pellets can be mixed and so an endless variety of plastic can be produced and matched to the need of the end product. Hahn Kunststoffe's pellets are called hanit®.

The first final product made up of hanit® was the willow fence post. But before the company could think about finished products, they first had to invent the technology to recycle plastic. Especially in the early days, they had difficulties acquire the necessary know-how, market their products, and secure the material flow. “In fact, that was an insanely big challenge; it took more than five years before Hahn Kunststoffe was able to make real money.”, said Marco Bräuß who runs the company today along with Sebastian Seibel. “In the beginning, it was not that easy to achieve a very high product quality. Today, we're much further along in that regard”. Luckily, this was negligible for the willow fence post because it is rarely seen up close. Today, the focus is shifting even further towards neat surfaces for products like garden furniture and decorations. There is no other company in the world that has such a portfolio variety made of recycled plastics.

Inspiration

With the introduction of the Dual System by the German Federal Minister for the Environment Klaus Töpfer (1987-1994 ), politicians set incentives for entrepreneurs and offered a bonus for the recycling of plastics. The environment-conscious entrepreneur Ulrich Kossin used this opportunity to implement his own idea of a sustainable business. However, according to Mr. Bräuß, Hahn Kunststoffe's focus was to develop products with a high customer demand without the need for extra government subsidies: “We must become independent of this bonus”. This ambitious spirit made it possible for Hahn Kunststoffe to stay in business even after the government subsidies were discontinued. Nevertheless, Mr. Bräuß is aware of the important influence of politics: “Basically, government policies were the trigger or created the opportunity for Hahn Kunststoffe to be founded".

Overall impact

A major problem of globalization is the increasing per capita usage of plastic and the handling of the huge amounts of waste it generates. Tons of it end up in the oceans every year. Burning it releases toxic, or even carcinogenic waste gases and substances into the atmosphere.

Since the founding of Hahn Kunststoffe in 1993, the company has expanded all over the world with many subsidiaries. Today, the innovative product of Hahn Kunststoffe is produced in France, England, Italy, Canada, and the USA. The know-how of the sustainable handling of plastic waste is thereby shared with other communities.

Especially municipalities have become a large portion of the hanit® customer base. By using recycled plastics in public spaces, private consumers are becoming aware of alternative options. Nowadays, the company has over 2000 different products in its range and, in addition to large companies and municipalities as customers, they want to expand into the retail sector.

Business benefit

By mixing different components of various plastics, the finished product can be customized to match its desired material properties. Depending on the application, it can have various advantages over comparable parts made of wood, concrete, or metals. Especially due to its resistance to environmental influences such as the sun, rain, and frost in outdoor use, hanit® stands out in comparison to wooden products. As a result, hanit® provides an advantage with a very long service life: “Our product comes with a 20-year warranty”, Marco Bräuß explains. In a long-term comparison, this makes it a more cost-effective alternative. The companies unique selling proposition is the total cost of ownership approach that is seriously important to many applications and customers.

Hanit® also has advantages for the construction industry. Hanit® has a lower weight and it is easier to process the components compared to concrete or metals. For customers, sustainability is not always paramount, notes Marco Bräuß: “Our customers buy the products because of the product performance!”.

All these benefits result in the continuously economical growth of the Hahn Kunststoffe company with up to 20% and investments between 7-10 million € per year in the last years.

Social and environmental benefit

Recycling is a twofold convenience. First, there is a practical use for the plastic waste that is created anyways. Furthermore, instead of various raw materials, hanit® may be used for manufacturing a product. The company also endeavors to embed its own products in a Cradle to Cradle system. This means that they take back their own products at the end of their life cycle and recycle 100% again.

In order to create products made of wood that are weather-resistant, they are often coated with chemicals that dissolve after a certain time and can then poison soil and groundwater. In contrast, hanit® does not emit any toxins and is highly ecologically compatible, assures Mr. Bräuß: “This is very important to us, and we are also certified in this respect. Our products are approved for use in kindergartens, for example. This means there is no risk of health problems”. Hence with the use of hanit® products, pollution of soil and groundwater can be prevented.

Since Hahn Kunststoffe is growing each year, the amount of recycled plastic is also constantly increasing: “We plan to process 72.000 tons of plastic this year. If you consider that a car weighs maybe 1.5 tons, that's about 50.000 cars.”, clarifies Mr. Bräuß. Mankind has to deal with restricted resources that exist on earth. The increased use of recycled products by societies could lead one step closer to organizing capacities.

Interview

Marco Bräuß, Managing Director