Facilitating a closed loop for agricultural film in Algeria

Germany – K-2016 hosted a dozen technology suppliers from the Far East, among them Chang Woen of Taiwan. This company specialises in designing and manufacturing all kinds of machines and complete production lines for the recycling of film, PET bottles, wood, tyres, paper and cables.

‘Our name says it all,’ proclaims field application engineer Ted Kao with a smile on his face. ‘Chang Woen is Chinese for stable and long-lasting, and that is exactly what our technology stands for.’

At the K-2016 show in Düsseldorf, the Taipei-headquartered company heralded the launch of its latest ‘Squeezer’ – a machine which presses the dirty moisture out of film materials. Moreover, Chang Woen highlighted many of the projects across the globe to which it has supplied its technology and expertise.

Recently, Kao and his team completed a line in Algeria for processing and recycling agricultural plastics. Ecolo, a Blida-based producer of agricultural film in northern Algeria’s rural heartland, now processes some 1500 tonnes of low-density polyethylene film per month. This material is used on a large scale in the process of cultivating vegetables.

‘Because it gets contaminated and comes in contact with food products, you can use this material only once,’ explains Kao. ‘Since we are talking about big volumes, recycling the material into new film really makes sense and is far more economic than producing completely new film.’

Ecolo reportedly invested Euro 1 million in the washing line alone.

From farms in Algeria, increasing volumes of plastic film are coming in for recycling rather than ending up in landfill. ‘It is becoming a closed-loop system,’ stresses Kao. ‘Ecolo takes in the used material for recycling while producing the new, recycled film.’

Chang Woen’s projects brochure contains many more examples of ‘best practices’, most of which are in the field of plastics recycling and cover Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Dubai, as well as Taiwan itself.

Over the past 15 years, the company has delivered some 200 lines and machines, including shredders, crushers, washing lines, dryers and ‘squeezers’ to customers all over the world, mostly in Asia.

Read more about this company in the upcoming K Show report in our December issue!