Dutch waste processor Attero (Venlo; www.attero.nl) is pursuing a process to produce plastics from vegetable, fruit and garden waste. According to local media, the company is currently experimenting with the production of bioplastics at its Venlo headquarters. Attero is aiming to have a pilot plant running in 2014 with the potential for commercial production scheduled to begin in the next 3-4 years.

Attero employs 800 individuals and had revenues in 2012 of EUR 325m with an EBIT of EUR 34m. The company says it processed roughly 685,000 t of organic waste in 2012. The company annually produces about 10m m³ of biogas and processes 3.4m t of remnant, organic and mineral waste at 15 sites throughout the country, which accounts for roughly 40% of all Dutch households. In addition, it has two waste-to-energy plants in Moerdijk and Wijster.

Project developer for Attero, Olaf Fennis, said the company is able to realise the development under the financial auspices of the Dutch government's "SDE+" initiative, which is essentially a grant programme compensating the difference between the production price and the market price of renewable energy, including electricity, heat and gas, and stimulates the production of energy from renewable sources.

Following a change of governments and a redefining of priorities, the newly elected officials restructured the incentive scheme for support of renewable energy. The goal was to ensure that not all funds set aside for developing alternatives end up going to a single solution and thus caps were introduced.