In the era of the economic boom, 1963 marks an important date for a farsighted company that thought outside from the schemes

Plastic in the early 60s began to take the first decisive steps that would later characterize the economic and social development of the last century.

A few years earlier Giulio Natta had obtained the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his research which led him to the discovery of polypropylene.

The Carousels in the black and white TV of the time magnified the multiple uses of Moplen, with which it was possible to make light containers, resistant and colorful, perfectly capable of replacing those made of painted sheet metal, heavy and which could rust.

In the cinemas, meanwhile, the Italians were passionate about the Leopard.

It was indeed in 1963, as we have said, in full economic boom, that thanks to the intuition and enlightened vision of Innocente Caldara and his brother-in-law Mario Pontiggia, “Pontiggia & Caldara” was born, which sixty years later would become the Caldara Plast we know today.

Mr. Innocente tirelessly toured Italy with his truck, an OM Tigrotto, in a period of great innovations in all sectors.

It is in this scenario, in an Italy in great turmoil, whereall the cellars of Milan were occupied by some laboratory where " something”, which Innocente Caldara saw as two plastic residues that many industries eliminated, a resource to be reused and brought back to life.

It was only the sixties but this is the idea that today underlies the circular economy.

In those first tiring but exciting years, the company did transport for various companies located in the province of Lecco, operating in the distillation of methacrylate, bringing the monomer to the customers of these firms.

The modus operandi was simple but effective: from these companies that produced methacrylate plates the waste products were collected and, subsequently, the themselves were sold to companies that dealt with distillation.

With the evolution of the market and of materials, (they were years of great polymer industry), the initially treated methacrylate was soon joined by polycarbonate, ABS, polyamide and polystyrene waste.

Thus, the company, like the market, was also changing.

In the seventies, the shed in Caslino d'Erba, the town of origin of the Caldara family, was built, not without a few sacrifices , now necessary to contain all the withdrawn waste.

Here were positioned the first mills purchased to grind the different types of materials, and store the ground ready to be resold in Italy but also abroad.

The nineties arrived quickly and the company became “Innocente Caldara snc”.

Next to Mr. Innocente, his son Attilio, the second of his children, began working at the age of 17, who deals with the grinding of waste.

Also Massimiliano, the eldest son, left the company where he worked and joined the family business.

Having the license to drive the truck, he alternates with his father in driving the new Iveco 190, he too travels around Italy recovering polymer waste to be sent to grinding.

In 1994, the third son, Alessandro, joined the brothers and his father, also taking care of transport and grinding.

To support all this hard work in the offices comes Ester, who takes care of administration and accounting and who supports Mrs .ra Angela, wife of Mr. Innocente, who has always, with constancy and rigour, kept the administrative side of the company running.

Now, that the quantity of waste increases, a doubt arises for the Caldaras "but what do we do with all these purchased and ground waste?"

So what? The Internet and the web didn't exist yet... so we started using the telephone and the yellow pages to find potential customers interested in ground plastics, and other potential suppliers from whom to buy processing waste.

Massimiliano, taking advantage of a forced stop following a motorcycle accident, began to be on the phone and deal personally with customer research and relationships with suppliers.

We are in the nineties and the era of the circular economy has already begun in Caldara. Continue…

Machine translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.

Fonte: Caldara