BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WBNG) — The sounds of heavy machinery, hard work, and the grinding of glass waste might sound like a racket to you and I. But to the team at KLAW Industries it is the sound of progress.
This small business is anything but small, cousins Jake Kumpon and Jack Lamuraglia have worked over the years to expand their team and vision – working on projects from the street level to the state level.
“We started back in 2019 and since then the company has come a long way. We’re up to a team of eight people now, we service five concrete plants across the Southern Tier and up into Central New York. A lot of our material goes into local street work here but also into projects all across the region. And that’s been something really exciting that has been a big shift this year is really coming out of a startup phase and moving into a regular production phase.” said Jacob Kumpon.
The past seven years of KLAW’s dedication to local industry comes from a long history of grant funding earned from competitions and applications.
Just this week, the EPA awarded KLAW Industries with a grant of $400,000k through their small business innovation research program.
Regional Administrator for the EPA Michael Martucci spoke on why they deserve the support.
“KLAW is a small business that’s taking a waste problem and turning it into a useful product for communities. We know that developing new technologies and advancing new processes like KLAW is doing is expensive in some cases and very difficult for small businesses. However small businesses oftentimes have the best solution to our problems.”
The team has been working hard on the next steps to their long-term plans, which involves marketing the machines the company has built themselves to expand glass processing to other areas in the country.
The funds they’ve acquired from the EPA grant will go directly into their efforts of expanding the uses of the material they make.
“What this funding is for is really to explore new markets for the material we make. We recycle glass and we turn it into a material that can be used as a cement replacement. And there is a lot of markets beyond concrete that can utilize this material, and that’s what we are looking into with this funding. Really kind of targeting the real core American industries that are out there and how we can make new materials to solve those problems.” said Kumpon.
With a bright outlook for the future, both the EPA and KLAW Industries are grateful for the support and are excited for what’s to come.
“It’s been a really great partnership over the years that’s led to KLAW industries here today. It’s led to the jobs that we’ve created here in Binghamton, it’s led to revitalizing this facility, and really kind of bringing a core manufacturing plant back to this area. And that is something that we are very grateful to have as a partner with the EPA” said Kumpon.
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