top of page
Search

QiTech Recycles Plastic Waste in 3D Printing Filament #GSA22 — Founder Interview

Updated: Apr 30

This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.

What Is This About?

Milan, who graduated from high school in 2022, founded QiTech to recycle plastic bottle caps into 3D printing filament. Featured at the German Startup Awards #GSA22, this young entrepreneur demonstrates how circular economy thinking can start early — turning everyday plastic waste into a usable manufacturing material.

  • This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.

  • Milan graduated in 2022 from Highschool and is the founder of QiTech, a company that recycles bottle caps to create the plastic filament used in 3D printers.

  • We are always sharing new resources with you.

  • This interview is in media partnership with the German startup association (Bundesverband Deutscher Startups https://deutschestartups.

  • You can also have a look at our history, we also interviewed many winners of the German Startup Awards 2021 already.



New Blog


QiTech Recycles Plastic Waste in 3D Printing Filament #GSA22 — Founder Interview Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.


Milan graduated in 2022 from Highschool and is the founder of QiTech, a company that recycles bottle caps to create the plastic filament used in 3D printers. He was recently awarded the Newcomer of the Year at the German Startup Awards 2022. Milan has been working hard to grow QiTech into a successful business. In addition to selling the ink for 3d printers call filament, QiTech also sells the machines they use to produce the filament. This innovative approach to recycling has earned Milan recognition as an outstanding young entrepreneur. With his creative solution to the problem of plastic waste, Milan is positively impacting the environment and paving the way for a more sustainable future.

In plastic recycling you have to get down to the details, there is a lot of ‘greenwashing.’Milan von dem Bussche, Founder QiTech

Subscribe Here

We are always sharing new resources with you. Find all of our options below. We want to make sure that we provide what’s best for your growing team, so please take a look at these additional ways in which can help!

“We produce (next to recycled filament) lab scale machines, where you can throw in the right kind of plastic on top and get 3d printing filament out at the end.”Milan von dem Bussche, Founder QiTech

German Startup Awards 2022

This interview is in media partnership with the German startup association (Bundesverband Deutscher Startups https://deutschestartups.org/). Their German Startup Awards #GSA22 honor each year outstanding female and male founders and investors in special categories. You can learn more about the winners in our interviews and on this website: https://germanstartupawards.de/rueckblick/rueckblick-2022

You can also have a look at our history, we also interviewed many winners of the German Startup Awards 2021 already.

“What we do is really recycling, not downcycling.”Milan von dem Bussche, Founder QiTech

Our Sponsor Startupraven

A startup’s journey can be a tough one, but it doesn’t have ́to feel like you’re alone on your quest! Invest in others’ success with us by joining our community of entrepreneurs who are building amazing things every day — no matter how big or small their ideas may seem at first glance.

The best way to find investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up here:

“We looked at consistent waste streams in terms of melting temperature and color and came up with bottle caps.”Milan von dem Bussche, Founder QiTech


The Video Interview is set to go live on December 6th, 2022



“There are 6 billion empty water bottles in Germany that are cleaned and re-used each year. The caps can not be cleaned, they have too many nooks and crannies. This is where we get our material for recycling from.”Milan von dem Bussche, Founder QiTech


The Audio Interview

You can subscribe to our podcasts here.


The Founder

Milan von dem Bussche (https://www.linkedin.com/in/milan-von-dem-bussche/) is a young entrepreneur who is already making waves in the business world. In March 2022, he won the German Startup Award, and in the summer of the same year, he graduated from high school. Von dem Bussche started his career at the age of 16 with 3d printing phone cases. He soon realized that there was more potential in recycling phone cases and turning them into 3d printing filament. The filament is the ink of a plastic 3d printer; it is a type of plastic that is heated and then layered on to create a 3d shape. Von dem Bussche and his team soon recognized that the filament business held much more potential than the phone case business, so they pivoted their focus. Their hard work has paid off; today, their company is one of the leading producers of 3d printing filament in Germany. von dem Bussche is proof that with a great idea and a lot of determination, anyone can succeed. As of December 2022, the team has not taken in outside investors, but they funded their startup with award money and a government stipend.


The Startup

Milan von dem Bussche is a young entrepreneur who founded the startup QiTech. The company started out by 3d printing cell phone cases but later realized that there was a much bigger market in recycling plastics to 3d printing filament. So they pivoted. After being asked to sell their machines for sorting and recycling, QiTech also offers these machines at a laboratory scale.

The recycling machines used by QiTech are able to sort and recycle plastics into 3d printing filament. This filament can then be used to produce a variety of products, including cell phone cases. The recycling process is environmentally friendly and helps to reduce the production costs of 3d printed products. You can learn more here https://en.qitech.de/recycling

The Jarvis Machines are produced by QiTech. They are designed for industrial recycling applications. They are able to sort and recycle plastics. The machines have a high throughput rate and are capable of working on a laboratory scale. You can learn more here https://en.qitech.de/industries.


Venture Capital Funding

QiTech is so far bootstrapped. They won prize money and are currently receiving a stipend from the German government, to help start off their company.

If you want to talk to them, reach out and we will connect you with Milan.


QiTech is Hiring for Both Businesses

Have a look at their website:


Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:


Feedback

We are always looking for ways to make the show better. Please take this opportunity and share your feedback with us! You can also suggest topics or interview partners that you’d like featured on future episodes by leaving a comment below — we would love to hear from YOU!!!


The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:


Keep Up to Date


Topics Discussed in this Interview

In this interview, we are talking about recycling, downcycling, plastic waste, 3d printing, industrial 3d printing, young entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, German Startup Awards, best newcomer, newcomer award, german startup association, Rheinhessen, Oppenheim, Westhofen, Germany, machine building, recycling machines, startup, scaleup, bootstrapping, venture capital


Automated Transcript


[0:00] Music.


[0:20] Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from startuprad.io your startup podcast and YouTube blog, from the german-speaking startup world. Today I have another recording in media partnership with a German startup Association therefore I would like to welcome million hey how you doing.Hello I’m neela good to see you.Leaf my pleasure you are here because you want the Germans to the board newcomer of the Year 2022 congratulations to that.Thank you thank you feels like ages ago meanwhile it was last March but so much happened in between somewhere change but yes thank you.


[0:59] We should tell our audience that we are recording this too would end of October but I I could totally agree that this year feels much longer because so much is happening in the meantime you.


[1:14] There’s no two audiences out there one of them can see you on YouTube and the other one can just here for the people who are hearing this you’re seeing this yeah for the people who are watching this behind you there’s a production facilitywe’ll get soon to that and you are also pretty young we justwe just realized that you graduated from high school this year and you officially enrolled at Universityfirst congratulations for the word secondly congratulations for the high school graduation and thirdly for the enrollmentit University so.You have started out pretty young you started when you’ve been 16 can you take us along a little bit your entrepreneurial Journey until.Now well you saying the truth it started quite early,I’m so when I was 16 I started with a friend and our old garage actually and we were making like phone cases and 3D printed them,we made like phone cases that had copper wires inside so you could use old phones and charge them wirelessly that was our interview Innovation to put copper wires in 3D printed phone cases and then you could charge like an old,phone and it will be as cool as new form of charging technology and that’s how we started making these phone cases with 3D printing and that’s how we got into old stuff.


[2:43] And from there on it just continued and continued and we kind of dabbled into business,and always kept coming in and then we started recycling old phone cases making new ones out of them making you 4D printing filament and that just kind of how it all started when I was 16.


[3:01] A lot of information you but basically I’m you started out with cell phone cases and,you 3D printed them and that’s an important step because I do believe this will take us to today because today you have a recycling business and a machine building business basically bothoffsprings from recycling 3D printing material filament you call it so.Cannot cannot make it really short that I would call the ammunition of a 3D printer this type of plastic this this.


[3:40] This very long and spindly thing that is basically used for printing right.


[3:46] Yes it’s you could describe it as an ink for 3D printers you know I normal printers you thinkthe 3D printer needs this filament it’s like a plastic wire and in order to print objects you need the wire and it gets melted and layer-by-layer new objects are created in a 3D printer.And yeah that’s exactly how we started and that’s what we do today so there was a gap in between I guess because we started recycling these phone cases and making our own filament our own colors for the phone cases,and then at some point we just noticed okay this is the way bigger business making this 3D ink I’ll call it 3D printing filament.And then we just start scaling that and at some point you know I’m very I’m a lot of Instagram so I posted on Instagram of my garage production and then some guy just said yo.I don’t want to buy your filament,I want to buy your machine setup for my laboratory and France and then we’re like okay let’s go why not it’s a cool idea of at some guy in France would be recycling you using our machines soyeah we started prototyping these machines getting them series ready and started a machine Building Company.And to this day we sold over 70 units into 14 different countries and really,try to innovate like small scale 3D printing plastic recycling and machinery and yeah that’s a big part of our business today about 50% of our Revenue comes just from building machines and selling them worldwide.


[5:13] Just to make sure.When we talk about this plastic will soon get back to this I do believe it’s you cannot use every plastic right,there there there’s a dip there is different in the type of plastic as well as in the color for you guys as you said you recycled them plus when you talk about machines,are we talking about here about just about 3D printers that can print with may I simplified as plastic.


[5:44] No no not quite so first and with plastics you really have to get down to the details because there’s a lot of greenwashing and a lot of fake swear,because recycling is really complicated and you can’t just take the common and use plastic and just say okay we’re going to recycle this to top quality material so we did at some point we noticed thatthis is not possible because for example if you take 10 shampoo bottles they will have different melting points and that means that you can’t throw them all together because they won’t melt at the same temperature.Causing you to break your Machinery so you need to find like a waste stream that’s consistent so what we identified is bottle caps so you know we started collecting bottle caps at school you know these small.


[6:29] Bottle caps you can get in different colors that are on top of every plastic or glass bottle and this is just how we scaled it up because you can collect these like by masses and you can sort them into colors and then we also got Industrial Wasteso you know every production has some way stream you know cutouts and something so we just called up all the,local manufacturers and said yeah I do have any waste that we can we can try to use and make 3D printing filament.And that’s how we got our waste stream sorted and for the Machinery no we do not build the 3D printers because the other companies are both 3D printers right it’s nothing new other people are way better what we build all the machines,that produce the 3D printing filament so one step ahead.Because all three of these printers need 3D printing filament and we kind of make these lab scale like table scale 3D printing filament solutions that,you can throw in plastic in the shredder then we have the melting device and it’s melted into new filament and then the new filament gets wind it up and Laser diameter controlled so this machine set you know all the way from plastic waste,into new 3D printing filament that’s what we specialize in and that’s where we sell these laboratory machines.


[7:42] I’d be curious hear you talk about like the Woody collected under the the for the bottles the.


[7:52] Yesthere’s an international print name of a soft drink we are not going to mention the audio podcast but basically are all the companies just using the same plastic for this is always it somehow comparable.Well it’s very very comparable and that’s a point and meanwhile we are even more,so Germany versus big glass recycling system so many people in Germany drink water from glass bottles so these glass bottles where usually have these plastic caps,and all the glass bottles in Germany they get washed and reused they get refilled and then reuse.But obviously before the glass bottles are washed they have to take the lid off and we’ll it cannot be washed because it has too many too many year corners and can’t be properly washed and there’s the safety ring.That would be that has to be new so after take new bottle caps so before they have a big washing area they take off the bottle caps and there’s six,billion.


[8:52] Glass water bottles every year in Germany and they are forced to take them back and wash them out and that’s where we get our bottle caps in like big numbers you know like millions and millions of them,because for them it’s just like way stream because they just want to refill those bottles.I’m they just have to take these guys take the lids off before and that’s where we get them now because there you can just have.Large quantities of very consistent material because of thing is.


[9:21] That oves water manufacturers they made like a collaboration you could say Alliance and they decided okay we’re all going to use the same bottle caps,like the same material you know different colors but the same material and we’re also going to use the same bottles because this way only ver refilling part works of our business,so we all use the same bottles the same you know and that’s how we have a very consistent material stream the only problem was that we had over colors mixed.


[9:47] So now we built a very very exciting,cap sorting machine so basically a machine where you dump in all the bottle caps and then the machine will pick out the correct colors and toss them in the right bags so that way we can take all the.Leeds which would usually just be shredded together and then you would have this brown mess you know just like when water painting mix all the colors together you have a brown mess and that’s what happened and that’s called downcycling it’s something it’s a.Big different down cycling and recycling so what we do is we do not down-cycle we separate the colors and then we can,get the two nice colors you know like.


[10:28] Bright blue bright red bright green and we can get this high-quality colors because we sought the plastic and then we tried it and that’s the big innovation our cap sorting machine and that this way we can really create high-quality materials because we want to enforce the.Before that you know recycling doesn’t result in brown or black I don’t know flower pots or something but you can really make high-quality products from it and that’s what we’re doing.I have several questions here first one the guys who manufacturing this water and recycling the bottles how did they react when you call them up and say Hey can I have some bottles yeah okay how many do you wanthow many do you havetwo million I have I actually right here that 2 million bottle caps it’s quite crazy in this Factory so what I did I just called.I made a list you know online I went to I went to the local.


[11:24] Dealership for bottles you know for different drinks and I just wrote down all the brands that sell water in Germany.You know mineral water and then I just called them all you know it took like two weeks you know getting to the CEO of the head of production and it just said okay right now you.Are you getting these glass bottles back you’re watching them and refilling them and that’s really good for the environment because it’s a cycle you know to cycle at the Loop circular economy but only thing that’s bad about it is that all the time you’re throwing away these lids.So I told them that right now what happening with those Lids either they’re getting burnt or they’re getting down cycled into the you know this black mess and if you want I can help you be part of your you know the revolution of like real recycling.And then I just offered them all the pilot project and I just said okay I would just come over I’ll do like a whole social media thing for you film everything and just record and then we have 2 million bottle caps and then we’ll record all the way from the.


[12:25] Taking it from your factory getting it to olfactory sorting the bottle caps having all the different colors shredding it into the different colors and then continue the processing and basically I’ll give you all the social media and press for free.And that’s kind of how I said this would be the deal and I also said,PS if you think I’m crazy and I’m a bit too young and too ambitious just think of it as a Media budget investment because we do a lot of Tik-Tok and Instagram for you.


[12:55] And yeah then luckily some some responded and now we actually have a really strong connection with Bolam a novice and Germany Bola.I mean not like I said it’s a company in koblenz you know it’s not far from us it’s also in the same state as we are and the CEOs really young as well and he’s really entrepreneurial minded.And we just had to connection instantly and he was like okay let’s go here two million bottle caps and let’s go ahead let’s do this it sounds interesting sounds like the future.And yeah here we are now that sounds pretty good and the other question I had when you start talking aboutall the Caps like million of caps how do I have to imagine it we may tell our audience that you’re in a big Factory hall right now we can see some of the equipment in the back andwould a hat in mind is either somebody comes in with a small box every day and just throw them in your recycling bin or that you have likebig trucks like a dozen big trucks every day pulling up or somewhere in between what scale are you currently working on with this recycling,no no so we’re not on the truck scale yet we have like,regular deliveries of like a big truck you know and just getting into million bottle caps.


[14:12] And also we have some people you know locals who just collect the bottle caps at that cafe you know restaurant owners or hotel owners.They just collect the bottle caps and always when they get like a big.Parcel full they send it to us or by bring it over and there right now we are in our new Factory we just moved.And yeah this is a lava side there’s a big.Big Warehouse where we store all our bottle caps has kind of crazy you can literally swim in them because there’s so many we actually had a pool a bottle Capital once it was,very very entertaining that sounds pretty goodlet us go a little bit back because I do believe we went a little bit ahead of ourselves because he is so excited about your business when you talked in other podcasts about your business you also talked,a lot about.


[15:05] How useful it was for you to participate in all the competitions in all the business plan competition for high school students and so on and so forth can tell us a little bit about thishow this helped youyeah well we kind of went to different strategy you know you know them the usual is like series a series B whatever bootstrapping and we just went to very alternative strategy because.There is youth competitions in Germany where you can win you can clean it it’s called it’s a.Germany national competition and we just said let’s go ahead and the prize is like a lot of money and also a ticket to Silicon Valley,and we were really hot on getting that stick it into Silicon Valley you know full flight and visiting Apple Google Airbnb Twitter all the headquarters and talking to the people so we were okay let’s do this and then we just,went through all the phases of the competition and you know they have to look like write a business plan.


[16:04] And that’s the first time where you have to set like a 3-year Vision you know as a sixteen-year-old we were like making phone case that the time we had no idea and that’s where your cake how can we make this profitable how many would we have to sell,when would the Machinery pay off what space do we need and all these questions were like bombarded on us and thenwe slowly grasp them and wrote our business plan we send it away and got into the finals.And then in the finals we had our first pitching experience you know we built like a booth and talked to like then Lester’s which were like heads of come German car companies and then we were like okay visit our idea and we got feedback and that was really the Catalyst for change.And the Catalyst for our starter because then we participated in start of teens as well and their the prize money is 10000 euros.Now I know for a lot of your audience 10,000 Euros is not a lot of money but for us as a couple of high school students that was everything we needed to get our business off the ground,so we could say startup teens you know the German competition was our business Angel because we wanted and then we had the money to kind of get off the ground and start.Start ahead and I think what even more important about these competitions is not the prize money.But the people you meet the network because that’s really really the thing that puts you forward and not even the network you know at these competitions you meet with the jury the higher-ups you know of important people walking around and the.


[17:33] Kind of judging on your idea but we also met friends in the same age also participatingin this competition to also have this startups and also like 18 high school students and made their startups and these are my best friends who will say we actually live together and like we lived in the old factory we like made a co-working spaceand we live together in an old factory I’m just rented the room and did our startup thing together and we host events together and we have parties together.And this p a network of like-minded people who are really entrepreneurial that was really what got me the most value out of these startup competitions.


[18:11] And as we already hinted in the beginning that basically ended giving youto businesses who are now not only two lines of business they are legally separated and from your imprint I could tell they even a different locations can you tell us a little bit how those two lines of business,developed and where people could learn more about it well.


[18:39] Both started out with the phone K and making the 3D printing fundamental Recycling business and then at some point as I mentioned before on Instagram some guy just said I want to buy your machines.And then it was like okay this is sounds like a fun idea why not and I grab the smartest people from my physics and chemistry major at school.And they were like okay let’s go let’s do this and then we said okay we’re going to create a new company called key Tech Industries referencing Stark Industries from Iron Man,and we’re going to make the Javas product line also referencing Iron Man and yeah that’s how we started we were four for high school students and we said okay let’s do this like a new business,making these machines will be like a new business lineI’m since then just really develop you know we had new people come in and scale the entire business had employees,got the new Factory the both business hours and that’s how the machine business is kind of developed and that’s where we are now.But at the same time obviously the recycling business didn’t stop it continued going which I did with a couple of friends as well as employees.


[19:46] And so they both kind of simit Ainsley developed and scale,and it was really good because in the machine building business we could use a recycling business as a live testing area you know our Live customer.And as the recycling business we would always have like a cone machine company Department that would say okay this machine I think it would work better this way do it and then you know this is how they would interact,I’m versus how they interact overstay and how they profit from each other so that’s a real I guess special thing about it is that we do not only build machines but we also do the recycling you know we kind of are not just,one sided company but we do kind of both and that’s interconnectiveness really gives us the advantage in the industry because,of the companies you know imagine if you only do recycling they would if something breaks they would have to call some company and wait for repair parts here,you know the friend who are he was like literally every other side of a factory I can say hey this broke we have to change this and we just 3D print a part that’s going to fix it and put it back in immediately.And that’s kind of the difference that sets us apart and puts us ahead.


[20:57] Mmm I was wondering who are your clients for for both businesses.


[21:04] Yes so for the machines it’s very focused on universities and research Departments of big companies so we have lots of universities very prestigious universities who by the.3D printing filament making machines from us.Because we’re basically the only competitor on the market who sells these modular machines that have like high function on lab scale.And so they they always come to us and also we have some R&D departments you know Rd Departments of,big also Industries for example because they want to make like this special filaments they are not in it really for recycling part,or sometimes they all but usually it’s more like okay let’s put some carbon fiber in our filament to make like this car part stronger you know and kind of change a properties and tweak it and tweak the colors and that’s why they invest into these are d.Equipment and those are big customers for the machines and other hand for recycling.Um the filament we make we sell it to large customers as well we only do large customers because it’s most convenient for us at the moment.And these are just businesses that use a lot of 3D printing for prototyping prototyping.Engineering parts for example or they also are some businesses that actually you know do stuff will free printing like who actually like make products that they sell.


[22:33] You know for example customized customized adapters for knitting machines you know you wouldn’t think of it.


[22:41] There’s business in that there’s like a big knitting business in Germany and

they say like always customize the adapters for it.And they’re making you know Stacks stacks of money and they have like 3D printers stacked against the wall or running making adapters for knitting.And there’s a lot of these businesses like this who use the power of individual free printing and the flexibility of 3D printing.To make these very unique Parts very Niche parts and they just need a lot of filament,I’m what we do is we sell them for filament and to recycle and also I was spooled are made of bottle caps,I’m the spools can be reused so you know usually the industry you would send someone a spool of filament and then at the end they would use up the filament and the spool would have to go in the trash,and we have this pool that you can clap open and reuse,and that’s really what sets us apart from other B filament providers and that’s why these small or medium businesses who run big print Farms like us.


[23:42] I have,two questions connected yet fruit first you talk about the filament and the spool and I was wondering because not everything you are printing is a final product can you also take back.


[23:59] Andre recycle things that have been the 3D printed and didn’t turn out as you wanted.


[24:08] Yes yes that’s a big point of it actually because all these companies they also fight with you know plastic waste because I have a lot of prototypes you know serious Productions that didn’t go right,and then they could just read it and reuse it you have to be honest and say with every recycling you have like a one to two percent.


[24:30] Such back on strength so you know we did the charpy test that the laboratory where you have like a hammer.Crashing against the plastic sample and then you can measure okay how much force did the hammer need to crush the sample and you can like make measurements.And we did notice that with every recycling because of the Heat and you know the stress the material.Put under but the material use the strength but it’s only minimal.Um about one to two percent so it doesn’t really matter for most applications if you’re not a rocket scientist.But you know printing adapters for knitting machines it’s perfectly okay I see I’m.


[25:12] Let’s get a little bit towards the end because we are already talking for money in 25 minutes thank you very much.I was wondering you talked about like the business competition being your business Angel are you till this day bootstrapped.Yes actually we are which is I guess rather magnificent magnificent after like three years of being in business we haven’t gone bankrupt.As we said at the beginning we would learn a lot we won a lot of competitions and verified a lot of prize money.And the thing is that we took development in our own hands so you know all we did is by like some electronics and you know soldiering Iron and some.Just some Workshop equipment so nothing where we where you would need hundreds and thousands of Euros but we just bootstrapped in our garage building these machines ourselvesyou know we never had to invest in expensive machines we build from ourselves,most of all freedom of our machine parts are actually 3D printed which is interesting so basically,our machines that make 3D printing filament are 3D printed or like made of 3D printed Parts obviously not everything there’s some metal rods Etc,bearings but there’s a lot of 3D printed Parts on that and that’s how we could,as a couple of students with a bit of prize money build up a successful machine building business and successful Recycling business.


[26:41] And yet to this day we are bootstrap the right now we got in Germany we got something called the goodness to Pena.Which is like a state-funded where you get one year 1000 Euros for every founder,so now we still have like four months last where we get basically we get a salary paid for and we’re really free to invest it into our company,so that kind of helped us but by now we also have enough profit,to kind of live live of it so we’re no longer and that’s feels really good because there was a long hard way until we reach at Breaking Point,but I guess it’s also different because we’re students you knowwe live in a shitty dormitories and we don’t need lots of money to pay off Mortage or you know have two kids and a dog but you know we live kind of simple.And so we don’t have many Engineers working for us and don’t have to pay high wages so it’s kind of easier for us so I think the biggest saving part is are,um personal costs that we saved.And that’s how it kind of works but right now we arm the noticing the stress of it because we want to make some Investments.Somewhere or you know you want to scale certain parts you know imagine instead of having two million bottle caps here having 200 million wouldn’t that be cool so but then you kind of.


[28:08] You can’t really find that out of prize money.So right now we are thinking about different models to kind of do some other projects that we have envisioned because we have a lot of plans and we have a lot of visions.


[28:20] I’m the yeah right now some things hindering us is the mantle and the capital so you would be open to talk to investors.


[28:31] Yes actually it’s a bit weird because our business is like you know we have two businesses it’s a bit complicated.So I think I hope not I think many investors it’s not a typical business case.I think that’s also why it’s hard and we why we haven’t been out there so much because it’s a weird business case and also,the entire you know we’re not a dating app that can scale like 25 billion users and two seconds and you know make crazy of,amount of money you know software you right oneself thousand times we are Hardware business you know we built actual machines and we deliver them to actual companies you know we drive out in a truck and deliver them the,laboratory Machinery or we sell them the filament you know Visa actual processes happening they’re real bottle cap see a real plastic being shredded and moving parts,and that’s what gets me excited about the business.But it’s also what I guess makes us less attractive to some of normal investors who usually prefer software companies sadly.


[29:36] Talking about excite people how many people are currently in your team and the last question for this interview are you hiring.


[29:44] Yes we actually so we just moved from oppenheim to dumpster.So we had an upline we had an old Supermarket 2600 square meters overall Supermarket where we built our production and we were team of like 10 people but we just notice that at some point we just hired everybody in oppenheim who could.Code and the Machine,we just ran out of people because it’s a small community I know because you grow up there too you must reckon that there’s just not that many it lives thereso now we have a new Factory right next to the University of darmstadt which is like this big massive Technical University in Germany and here we’re gonna actually hiring a lot we’re hiring three new positions right now paid positions.


[30:29] From darmstadt students.And right now we’re a team of five people so we have five people who moved here kind of reduce the back to the core team and yes now we’re hiring a new mechanical engineer we’re hiring in you.


[30:42] Developer for full-stack developing and also in new social media guy and yes these are the four positions that we are trying to get right now.But what I also learned during my startup Journey that the more people doesn’t necessarily mean the better because sometimes you are faster with a small team.So I really learned that the hard way I guess.But yeah with still trying to get the right people together right now so we have a good core team and we want to expand we’re ambitious.And for everybody would like to learn more will link down your company website down here in the show notes everybody can free freefeel free to reach outand look at the open positions because usually this interview is heard for at least half a decade after it is published so maybe you’re looking for some different positions relax again congratulations to you what andthank you very much for the interview.Thank you I thank you for enabling me to be on the show it’s really been a great honor I’m very excited to see how this show goes online and goes live and reactions we get.And yeah we never know that see what business might be happening after this great was my pleasure have a great day bye bye bye bye.


[32:05] Music.


[32:11] Interviews at www.startuprad.io


[32:17] Music.


QiTech, founded by Milan von dem Bussche who graduated from high school in 2022, recycles plastic bottle caps into 3D printing filament. The company identified that Germany has 6 billion empty water bottles cleaned and reused annually, but their caps are a consistent waste stream with uniform melting temperature and color — perfect for recycling into high-quality 3D printing material. QiTech also produces the Jarvis Machines for industrial-scale plastic recycling.

In this #GSA22 interview (in media partnership with the German Startup Association), Milan von dem Bussche presents QiTech — a startup that turns plastic waste, specifically bottle caps, into 3D printing filament. What makes this story remarkable is Milan's age: he graduated from high school in 2022 and is already running an innovative cleantech startup. QiTech identified bottle caps as an ideal recycling input because they offer consistent waste streams in terms of melting temperature and color. Germany alone has 6 billion empty water bottles that are cleaned and reused each year, producing massive quantities of caps that QiTech can process. The company also manufactures the Jarvis Machines, designed for industrial-scale plastic-to-filament recycling.

  • QiTech recycles plastic bottle caps into 3D printing filament, targeting a specific waste stream with consistent melting temperature and color properties ideal for quality recycling.

  • Germany has 6 billion empty water bottles cleaned and reused annually — the caps from this massive volume represent a largely untapped recycling opportunity that QiTech addresses.

  • Founder Milan von dem Bussche graduated from high school in 2022, making him one of the youngest founders featured on Startuprad.io and at the German Startup Awards.

  • QiTech produces the Jarvis Machines, industrial-grade recycling equipment designed to sort and process plastics into 3D printing filament at scale.

Entities Mentioned

People

  • Milan von dem Bussche — Founder of QiTech; graduated high school 2022

  • Jörn "Joe" Menninger — Interviewer; host of Startuprad.io

Startups & Organizations

  • QiTech — Cleantech startup recycling bottle caps into 3D printing filament

  • German Startup Association (Bundesverband Deutscher Startups) — Media partnership for #GSA22

Products

  • Jarvis Machines — QiTech's industrial plastic recycling machines

  • Recycled 3D printing filament — QiTech's core product from bottle caps

Topics

  • Plastic recycling — Bottle cap waste stream utilization

  • 3D printing sustainability — Recycled filament for additive manufacturing

  • Young entrepreneurship — High school graduate founding a startup

Relationship Map

  • Milan von dem Bussche → QiTech founder → High school graduate 2022

  • Bottle caps → QiTech recycling → 3D printing filament

  • QiTech → Jarvis Machines → Industrial-scale plastic recycling

  • German Startup Association → #GSA22 Awards → Media partnership with Startuprad.io

Related Articles on Startuprad.io

Quote Highlights

"We looked at consistent waste streams in terms of melting temperature and color and came up with bottle caps." — Milan von dem Bussche on QiTech's approach

"There are 6 billion empty water bottles in Germany that are cleaned and re-used each year. The caps are our opportunity." — Milan von dem Bussche

Partner with Startuprad.io

Startuprad.io is the leading independent media platform covering startups, venture capital, and innovation across the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Europe. We offer B2B partnership opportunities for companies looking to reach startup decision-makers, founders, and investors.

Subscribe to the Podcast

What is QiTech?

QiTech is a German cleantech startup that recycles plastic bottle caps into 3D printing filament. Founded by Milan von dem Bussche, the company chose bottle caps as their raw material because they provide consistent waste streams with uniform melting temperature and color — essential properties for producing quality 3D printing filament.

What are QiTech's Jarvis Machines?

The Jarvis Machines are industrial recycling machines produced by QiTech. They are designed to sort and process plastic waste into 3D printing filament at scale, enabling the transformation of bottle cap waste into usable manufacturing material.

Can recycled plastic be used for 3D printing?

Yes — QiTech demonstrates that recycled plastic, specifically from bottle caps, can be processed into high-quality 3D printing filament. The key is selecting waste streams with consistent properties. Bottle caps work particularly well because they have uniform melting temperatures and colors, making them ideal for producing reliable filament.

About the Host

Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.

Support Startuprad.io

Companies driving sustainability, circular economy, and climate innovation use Startuprad.io to reach founders, investors, and decision-makers across the DACH startup ecosystem. If your brand is building in ClimateTech or sustainable business models, explore partnership options here: Partner with Startuprad.io

Comments

Become a Sponsor!

...
Sign up for our newsletter!

Get notified about updates and be the first to get early access to new episodes.

Affiliate Links:

...
bottom of page