Spanish energy and chemicals company Repsol (Madrid; www.repsol.com) and compatriot waste management company Acteco (Valencia; www.acteco.es) are collaborating to increase capacity at Acteco’s plant in Alicante / Spain for manufacturing high-quality polyolefins derived from recycled materials. Acteco has more than 25 years of experience in the collection, processing and mechanical recycling of plastics. Products from this plant will be included in Repsol’s “Reciclex” polyolefins product line for high-value applications as well as applications with high technical requirements such as outdoor furniture, flexible packaging products or automotive parts. The company offers a portfolio with more than 10 Reciclex grades for different end markets.

The partners have been working together since 2018 to promote new circular economy models through end-of-life recovery of polymers, reincorporating them into new high added-value products in sectors such as automotive, healthcare, construction, infrastructure or packaging (see Plasteurope.com of 03.05.2018). In this way, it is possible to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and decrease the consumption of raw materials used to manufacture new products.

The alliance contributes to Repsol’s objectives to become a net zero emissions company by 2050 and to have 20% of its polyolefins production come from high-quality recycled plastics by 2030. The Madrid-based company is involved in more than 200 circular economy initiatives launched to meet carbon intensity reduction targets.

Among others, the waste management company Acteco is participating in a project to improve recycling of multilayer food packaging which Spanish plastics technology centre Aimplas (Valencia; www.aimplas.net). The project was started in 2019 (see Plasteurope.com of 25.11.2019).