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Chang Woen :The constant innovator that leads groundbreaking technology in recycling sector
An exclusive interview with the marketing manager Ted Kao
Chang Woen was established in 1976, initially as a company specialized in manufacturing crushers and shredding recycling machines, it later developed the first PET recycling line in Asia back in 1992 in cooperation with customers.
At Taipei PLAS 2018, Chang Woen will place emphasize on machines including the upgraded strength crusher, hydro extractor and squeezer, among many others special machines.
We visited Chang Woen’s factory before the exhibition, it is situated on a hilly side at the outskirt of Taichung city – occupying a panorama view to the manufacturing industrial city of Taiwan, Chang Woen has been supplying the local industrial cluster for decades, while swiftly expanding their business abroad. Chang Woen focuses on designing technology in reprocessing industrial and commercial waste. It aims not only on recycling, but the recreation of useful materials for industrial multi-purpose production in a number of sectors including agricultural films, nonwoven materials, packaging bags, food and beverages industry PET post-consumer bottles. “Being placed at the forefront of the recycling chain, Chang Woen’s washing line (consist of size reduction, contaminant removal and washing stages) along with its hydro-extractor and squeezer are essential in order to ensure the quality of pellets output”, remarked Ted Kao. At Chang Woen, it is clear that waste is treated as a renewable resource but not merely a commodity. Their machines have an in-house production rate as high as 85%, which to them means a higher quality control rate. They wish to present the core value of building a sustainable environment by promoting the importance of material reuse at Taipei PLAS. Ted shared the recent plans of the company, and his take on the future trend of the recycling sector.
 2018 Capturing the emerging opportunities in recycling under policy change
Chang Woen will set up a branch in Vietnam, “It is to better serve our ASEAN customers and also to respond to the surging demands expected in Vietnam and Malaysia – which will be the key players of recycling”, remarked Ted.
Furthermore, 2018 has been a year filled with volatile changes thanks to the plastics waste import ban coming from China. This policy has created a geographical shift to the producers of machinery as well as recycling business. Chang Woen has felt a revival in demand in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. They are starting some exciting projects with customers in Japan, as the Japanese manufacturers now must handle the waste domestically instead of exporting to China, thus they tend to select quality machines in order to meet the requirements in regulations. We were fortunate to cooperate with Panasonic, and introduce our crushers, extractors, and squeezers. In this field Chang Woen was able to display its strength in building a total solution, while the Japan counterparts excel in single machines. The ability to formulate a comprehensive solution is thus much welcomed by the Japan customers.
On the other hand, under the influence of Chinese plastics ban, “There is an increased flow of recycling line demand in Taiwan as a result of international plastics wastes being moved to be processed in Taiwan”, Ted explained.
Chang Woen thus received some new cases in assisting customers in Tainan, originally metal/plastic composite producers who aim to upgrade in production and efficiency in order to face a “global race in recycling”, so to outperform other recycling competitors in the Southeast Asia countries. In Hong Kong, Chang Woen has finished building a LDPE film recycling line (with shredding, washing and extrusion machines) for an agricultural mulch film recycler. “The washing line only requires 2 people during the production due to our greatly automated features”, said Ted. It indicates that in Hong Kong where lands are scarce and labor cost expensive, the company is yet to have the capacity to make the recycling line valuable.
Going green as a social responsibility, corporate image matters
Having the opportunity to speak to Ted’s team and get to know about Chang Woen, it is clear that the company sees recycling not only as a fundamental task for building a sustainable economy, but also as a social responsibility. “It is great that a lot of corporates advocate using recycled materials for their products – and to build greener corporate images”, “Because the supply chain is closely knitted, emphasizing on the benefit of recycling and reuse materials means that the end users, the upstream and downstream supply chain suppliers must all comply to a greener way of economy”, Ted commented. The new squeezer will also be more energy efficient by reducing 10-15% power at the same production rate in comparison to their counterparts. This theme in building a sustainable environment will thus be the essential topic at Taipei PLAS 2018. The upgraded version of strength crusher would be the highlight of the exhibition as well – with deeper automation features, faster tool-change speed, and easier operation and maintenance.
For the coming days, Chang Woen is planning to be more involved in the recycling business, particularly by integrating intelligent technologies in automatic rubbish recycling, as well as material recovery facilities. It would mark another milestone for the company, and a step forward in the recycling sector. If you happen to be interested in these issues, visit Chang Woen at Taipei PLAS 2018.
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