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切換側邊選單 切換搜尋選單

Recycle and Recreate the Rhythmic Flow

What Makes This Glass Recycling Plant Special?

What Makes This Glass Recycling Plant Special?

Source:Chien-Tong Wang

Says design guru Aaron Nieh (聶永真), “An important reason why Spring Pool is more than a traditional industry, but also a famous contemporary brand, is because it melds environmental protection with craftsmanship and positions itself as a sustainable industry that will survive far into the future.”

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What Makes This Glass Recycling Plant Special?

By Sunny Wu
web only

Shards of recycled glass pile up into little hills, sparkling brilliantly under the sun. A nearby machine bellows as it sifts through the crystals; the noise brings one back to reality. It is an industrial rather than fantastical setting. Indoors, there are gusts of hot air as the glass is heated, molded, cooled down, blown, and stretched by ranks of craftsmen with their apprentices. There is a rhythm in their work, here at the Spring Pool Glass Factory (春池玻璃工廠), where one hundred million kilograms of glass are treated every year—over half of all the recycled glass in Taiwan.

Founder and Chairman Wu Chun-chi (吳春池), whose given name literally means Spring Pool, began his career as a glassworker. He eventually threw himself into the recycling business, treating discarded glass and selling it back to the supply chain.

For fifty years, he toiled by cauldrons of melting glass. His sacrifice reduced Taiwan’s carbon footprint by an amount that could only be offset if we were to build five hundred new Daan Forest Parks—thirty-two thousand acres of forest. He suffered the heat to help abate the effects of global warming.

His lifetime of recycling has inspired his son and successor T. A. Wu (吳庭安) to ponder the implications of the “circular economy.”

This was T. A.’s moment of eureka: when you create an “economy” that satisfies market demand, it naturally becomes “circular” and sustainable. So as long as “the product is attractive, you don’t need to tout that it was recycled, because you’ve already created new market value for it.”

Source: Chien-Tong Wang

The Next Generation’s Investment in Living Design

T. A. Wu revealed that he reinvented the Spring Pool brand as a response to stiff competition. “Glass is cheap. (The value of recycled glass is not a tenth of the value of recycled metal or paper.) The inventory cost is enormous, we had to purchase land just to store all the recycled glass.” True to his principle, his tried to transmute discarded glass into an attractive product with additional market value. His end goal was to create a sustainable, circular economy.

He found the key was to incorporate his products into the lives of average consumers. A few years back, he collaborated with the Jut Art Museum (忠泰美術館) on the “House Vision” project. It was an important turning point. By working with architects, he caught a glimpse of what other industries were doing to improve the way people lived. He saw the future of the Spring Pool Glass Factory.

The brand’s modus operandi used to be B2B (business-to-business). T. A. changed course to pursue a B2C (business-to-customer) model. He wanted to increase market demand. “We are a brand and a service-provider. We combine modern aesthetics with traditional glasswork.” Thus, he initiated the W Glass Project (W春池計劃).

His first step was to foster collaboration with experts from diverse industries. Lin Hwai-min (林懷民), founder of Taiwan’s famous Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, used “head in the clouds” as a design concept and created “143 Shot Glasses” (143玻璃杯) with recycled glass. (Read: Lin Hwai-min: Taiwan, See Thy Own Beauty) World-renowned celebrity chef André Chiang (江振誠) designed a set of utensils called “Darts by André.” (Read: Andre Chiang: 7 Unique Restaurants, Perfecting a Branding Philosophy)

Discarded oak casks were turned into wooden saucers that could be used as plates or cutting boards. The lids were made of 100% recyclable glass and served multiple functions. These creations were beautiful, practical, environmentally-friendly, and contributed to a sustainable society.

Recycling glass and remolding it through traditional glassblowing techniques was always Spring Pool’s specialty. It also became the focus of public attention.

Says design guru Aaron Nieh (聶永真), “An important reason why Spring Pool is more than a traditional industry, but also a famous contemporary brand, is because it melds environmental protection with craftsmanship and positions itself as a sustainable industry that will survive far into the future.”

Recycle and Recreate the Rhythmic Flow

 “I think it’s important that people reap the benefits of a circular economy. Environmental protection is a happy by-product,” says T. A. Wu. Collaborating with celebrities was a launchpad; ultimately, he wanted the circular economy to become part of everyone’s daily lives.

To this end, he announced a charity event promoting glass drinking straws and “143 Shot Glasses” on crowdfunding platforms “to see if the public felt the benefits of what I was doing, and to invite other eco-conscious people to pitch in.”

He achieved his crowdfunding goal of 200,000 New Taiwan dollars within five hours of announcement. The crowdfunding consulting firm Backer-Founder points out that crowdfunding is built on “an economy of trust.” Spring Pool was able to quickly achieve its goal because it offered a complete, well-thought-out plan that quickly attracted the attention of netizens who were interested in the topic.

It was also because enough people felt confident that the proposed plan would come to fruition.

Unlike machine-made glassware, every Spring Pool glass drinking straw was handmade by craftsmen. The glassblowing production process traces unique patterns into each piece. In all the world, you will never find another drinking straw with the same motif.

Source: Chien-Tong Wang

Designer Aaron Nieh notes that glass being molded at high temperatures has all the characteristics of an extraterrestrial organism. The glassblower is master conductor, directing the poetic rhythm of the melting glass until it reaches the desired harmonic balance, at which point the glass is cooled off and coalesces into outwardly similar but minutely different pieces of art.

Every piece is unique, but everything fits into a bigger picture. This is the added value of a production process that’s unmoored from the trappings of mechanization and mass production.

Source: Chien-Tong Wang

Let Design Enter Your Life

 “Glass is good material because it is 100% recyclable,” says T. A. Wu. He elucidates about “the life cycle of a product. People are used to satisfying their demands through consumption. But a drinking straw is an ephemeral medium. We should avoid over-consuming such products.” He hopes people will rely less on “single-use products and materials.” (Read: Serving Clients Like Starbucks and Nike, Arthur Huang Makes Recycling Popular)

Whether it is a straw or a cup, it can find new life as a lunchbox or some other product simply by combining part of the raw material with thirty to seventy percent of recycled stuff, drastically reducing the impact on the environment.

 “Did you know? We make glass drinking straws with the same technique we use to produce neon lights, but who needs so many neon lights now?” T. A. Wu highlights the fact he is inventing new products with traditional techniques as a method of reducing inventory.

For a historic company like Spring Pool Glass, it is also a paradigm shift in their business model, a change in their ideas about design. Hopefully, a transformation in the upstream sector of the supply chain will motivate downstream industries to make smarter choices in the raw material they use.

T. A. Wu, executive assistant to the chairman of Spring Pool Glass. Source: Chien-Tong Wang

In 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen personally visited the Spring Pool Glass Factory. In a public statement, she commended their success: “The ‘circular economy’ is a simple phrase, but some have devoted their lives to making it a reality.”

Chairman Wu Chun-chi is often asked if his work is hard. He smiles and answers, “If you have no passion for what you do, even the most mouthwatering delicacies would become tasteless; if you love your work, even tap water would taste like honey.” This is why he toiled for decades, and his passion motivates his son to begin the next chapter of the Spring Pool brand.

T. A. Wu makes this analogy: “The Spring Pool is a well of inspiration, we open the channels of communication with consumers and let our currents flow to them.” He admits there is still insufficient demand in the market. But he remains hopeful:

“Hone your craft, sharpen your skill, and once your vision is accepted, people will come to you.”

Perhaps the design guru Aaron Nieh has the truth of it: “Design has become part of our daily lives. You may not notice it, but it has a subtle and organic influence on you—which is as it should be.”

Translated by Jack C.
Edited by Tomas Lin

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