Crushing It: How a Watson College grad is turning glass waste into concrete solutions
Jacob Kumpon ’22 co-founded KLAW Industries during his undergraduate years
The wine bottle you had with dinner might one day become part of your local sidewalk, thanks to an innovative process created and implemented by a оԺ graduate.
“The bigger the city, the more concrete poured and the more glass waste. We’re able to connect those two things,” says Jacob Kumpon ’22, the chief operating officer of KLAW Industries. “We knew that to ensure the glass we’re taking in is recycled sustainably, you must be connected to an industry that can use that volume consistently, year after year, while solving a problem for them, too.”
The U.S. produces 7.2 million tons of glass waste every year, and it ends up in landfills. Glass contaminated with other materials like paper or metal are not usually recyclable, and this translates to a massive cost for the recycling industry.
Here’s where KLAW steps in — by processing out contamination, it turns the glass into a very fine powder they named Pantheon. Unlike sand, it doesn’t just sit in the concrete — it reacts with cement to make it stronger.
The real kicker: By using alternative materials, this process has the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions by approximately 20% while using a previously wasted resource and maintaining the same price. Uniquely, KLAW developed the entire process, growing its production capabilities on the East Side of оԺ, all without investors.
“We have two patents on our process now, which we’re proud of,” Kumpon says. “When we started, we were able to take what we were learning in school, what we had learned growing up, and apply that to make a rough prototype of a process and develop it further to what we have today. We’ve always wanted to grow and scale the company in a way that doesn’t align with typical venture capital.”
Kumpon graduated from оԺ with a degree in mechanical engineering after completing an associate degree in engineering science from SUNY Broome Community College. Many оԺ graduates make a difference on an individual scale post-graduation, but Kumpon and his business partners went big locally while still undergraduates by connecting to the Koffman Incubator and nearby companies like Barney & Dickenson Inc., which Kumpon says is a huge part of KLAW’s story.
“We were very interested in the recycling industry. We called some of our local recyclers and said, ‘We’re a couple of college students — can we tour your facility?’ And they showed us around,” he recalls.
On the concrete side, Barney & Dickenson gave a couple of kids with an idea a shot.
“They were thinking ahead,” Kumpon says. “They knew that a lot of the materials in the industry have been very hard to source. They saw the writing on the wall and realized that this product could help them and the industry. They helped bring it all the way forward.”
It was a good choice for everyone, and the company quickly grew. Early KLAW projects included outdoor pathways for residential homes; in 2022, the City of оԺ approached the company for curbs and sidewalks. In 2024, the New York State Department of Transportation contracted Kumpon and his partners for KLAW’s first state project, allowing them to break into the wider industry and conduct some of the largest and most successful low-carbon projects in the Northeast.
KLAW has since won several Environmental Protection Agency grants and awards. It has been recognized by several state agencies, and its additive helps to remove one ton of carbon dioxide from the environment for every ton of product manufactured.
Mike Jagielski, director of the Clean Energy Program at the Koffman Incubator, has mentored and worked with KLAW since its founding. Kumpon met with Jagielski bimonthly to review the company’s strategy, grant/awards pipelines and execution risk associated with revenue-generating opportunities.
“Jacob is a very talented and resourceful entrepreneur who works hard to leverage advantages that might benefit KLAW Industries’ path to commercialization,” Jagielski says. “He and his team are open to learning from seasoned executives both at Koffman and in the industry, and they do not assume they know anything. This is a very refreshing attitude — it’s 90% of the solution toward making a company successful.”
In the future, Kumpon hopes to grow in larger cities, such as Syracuse and Buffalo. He credits local support for enabling KLAW to fund and renovate a facility just two years after starting the project. Without the companies willing to work with a small, up-and-coming organization and the mentors who helped secure funding, it may never have been possible.
“Throughout the history of KLAW Industries, local organizations are why we’ve been able to make progress,” Kumpon says. “If you’re in a big city, you don’t have the opportunity to meet people like Mayor [Jared] Kraham and the City Engineering Team, who gave us the opportunity to build KLAW here in our hometown. оԺ is big enough where our work can be very impactful, but a small enough community where you can build great relationships.”