Erema Group mourns loss of firm’s co-founder

Austria-based plastics recycling machinery producer Erema Group has announced that its co-founder and former managing partner Helmut Bacher has died at age 81.

“Helmut Bacher is regarded as a pioneer of plastics recycling," the company says. "Together with his two colleagues Georg Wendelin and Helmuth Schulz, Helmut Bacher founded Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H. in Linz, Austria, in 1983.”

The company says the “life’s work” of the three co-founders was acknowledged in 2008 when the three founders received the Golden Award of Honour from the Province of Upper Austria.

Erema says Bacher displayed "visionary foresight" and an open mind in playing a key role in shaping the plastics recycling industry.

Following his training as a tradesman and attaining a degree as a mechanical engineer, Bacher worked in various technical positions before moving to a mechanical engineering company for plastics processing in the early 1970s.

“Helmut Bacher shared with his two colleagues a belief in the potential of plastics recycling,” Erema says. “During countless trials, he searched for the right solution until he found it. Despite initial adversity, the three founders remained convinced of the idea of a cost-effective recycling machine for plastic [scrap] and started up their own company in 1983.”

The newly formed company exhibited at the K Fair trade show in Germany in 1983, presenting what Erema calls “a simple, robust, reliable and economical recycling system, signaling the start of a success story.”

The company produced its first orders consisting of two small workshops and a double garage, according to Erema.

“Today, the plants and components supplied by the Erema Group achieve recycling capacities of over 25 million metric tons of plastic per year worldwide,” the company adds.

Up until his retirement from company management in 2004, Bacher was what Erema calls a driving force behind the company, and he remained closely associated with the Erema Group until his death, Erema says.

The company now has 950 employees, subsidiaries in the United States, China and South Africa, and what it calls a global network of representatives, with 8,500 plants and components supplied by the group currently in operation in more than 100 countries worldwide.

“His technical ability, coupled with solution-orientated thinking and genuine appreciation of his employees, have left a lasting impression and continue to shape the company to this day,” Erema says.