A U.S. EPA grant is assisting KLAW Industries move toward its target of supplying recycled-glass pozzolan nationwide. | Courtesy of KLAW Industries

A U.S. EPA grant offered the ideal foundation for KLAW Industries to develop up its pozzolan company. 

In November 2022, KLAW Industries received $400,000, 1 of quite a few firms to obtain a Little Small business Innovation Investigation (SBIR) grant. The New York state-primarily based developing material supplier made use of that cash to create its procedure for turning post-customer glass into a partial replacement for cement made use of in concrete.

The emerging finish marketplace for customer glass has greenhouse gas reduction positive aspects, research have recommended, and is gaining traction across the nation.  

Jacob Kumpon, co-founder and chief operating officer of KLAW, mentioned the grant permitted the organization to fulfill a contract with its property city of Binghamton, N.Y. to offer material for a curb and sidewalk replacement project this spring. 

Kumpon mentioned the project went so effectively that the contractors involved in the city project decided to use KLAW’s material in their other projects, also. Smaller sized cities about Binghamton have also expressed interest. 

“Our strengths genuinely came out,” Kumpon mentioned. “A major factor for us was everyone on the ground liked working with the material much more than what they had been working with prior to, so it genuinely set us apart and got us into a lot of comply with-up projects.” 

Now, KLAW is functioning to develop out capacity, simply because “there are much more projects than we can make material for,” Kumpon mentioned. 

Leveraging partnerships

The EPA grant is assisting develop the company’s operational capacity from 1 ton per day to two tons per hour, Kumpon mentioned, and robust partnerships with regional MRFs have meant feedstock is not a difficulty. 

“The recyclers right here in New York have been particularly supportive of us delivering an option use for MRF glass,” Kumpon mentioned, adding that “they’ve genuinely been fantastic about functioning with us, even at our modest capacity, to make certain we have adequate material and, as we start off to develop, providing us much more.” 

Dave McPeek, compliance manager with Taylor Garbage and Southern Tier Recyclers, mentioned the partnership with KLAW “has been a huge results for each of our organizations, permitting us to obtain a robust and impactful finish marketplace for our recycled supplies.” 

“As a family members-owned organization, supporting increasing firms bringing recycling innovations to our region is 1 of the methods we are generating the globe a much better and greener location whilst serving our neighborhood,” McPeek added. 

The future is focused on scaling up, Kumpon mentioned, from regional to statewide, then bringing the material to key cities in the Northeast and ultimately nationwide. 

He mentioned Binghamton “taking the very first step produced individuals significantly much more comfy in the material, so that is been 1 of the greatest issues we’ve gotten out of the project,” he mentioned.

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