In the early nineties I busied myself with purchasing equipment for businesses in the recycling industry. I found it to be a fascinating sector with great potential. Eventually I started Granuband as the first tire recycler in The Netherlands.
For the first few years Granuband was in a much smaller location in Amsterdam and recycled an average of 5,000 tons of tires per year. That has now risen to 30,000 tons!
Growth
In the past years Granuband has seen enormous growth, in no small part because of a great team. My motto is "every challenge demands a solution” and my goal for Granuband is to create a company that will continue to operate well into the future. This can only be done by a lot of energy going toward development of new products. This is an important key point in our company.
Total Concept
What started with tire recycling only has grown to organizing and executing the entire process. Eighteen people, five days a week, 18 hours a day work diligently with the collection of tires, processing and the making of products from the recycling of rubber. In summary, a Granuband total concept – recycling and producing end products at one location.
Knowledge
An important point is that all present knowledge, joined in the Granuband Knowledge Center, is shared with everyone. We have a global showroom in The Netherlands open for use by multiple businesses. We offer third parties draft market studies, capacity determination, pre-engineering, design, and if desired, participation. We build the plant and are flexible in providing the various components. One is simply better building filtering installations, the other in shredding bones and a third in transport systems. Finally, we can also take care of training the production and maintenance personnel.
Green
Naturally, the current trend is thinking greener. I also see a clear shift of thought with the consumer. Approximately 10 years ago, consumers did not want to spend money on ‘recycled’ tiles. Now, through our end products we create customer awareness of recycling and we make an important contribution to a sustainable society. We do not talk about Corporate Social Responsibility, we ARE Corporate Social Responsibility!
Future
Sometimes people ask me: what do you wish for more than a thriving, modern company with more than three parcels of land? Of course, I am very proud of what we have accomplished so far. But I still see a lot of chances and opportunities. My goal is that Granuband continues far into the future with greater innovation in the current process of recycling tires and looking for new applications in which rubber can be used as a raw material. Our slogan 'today black, tomorrow green solutions' indicates that we are on the move!