OMV and ALBA in deal to build sorting plant in Germany

OMV and ALBA Recycling have started exclusive discussions to jointly build and operate a sorting plant in Walldürn, Germany, for the further sorting of mixed plastic waste for chemical recycling, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.

A final investment decision is expected in 2022.

ALBA Recycling operates five sorting plants in Germany for lightweight packaging and sorts roughly one third of Germany’s lightweight packaging waste – more than 800,000 tonnes per year, with Germany’s biggest sorting capacity at present combined with high output quality and high recycling rates.

The collaboration will secure the delivery of high-quality suitable feedstock for chemical recycling from ALBA Recycling to OMV to help close the loop for plastics, the company said.

“Used plastics have a significant impact on the environment and climate. Reducing such impacts while retaining the usefulness of plastics requires a shift towards a more circular plastics system. Chemical recycling like the ReOil process is the ideal addition to well-established mechanical recycling methods,” Maximilian Grasserbauer, OMV Vice President Plastic to Plastic, said in a statement

“In ALBA, we see a very promising cooperation partner who has many years of expertise in recycling used plastics and with whom we would like to invest in the future. In an innovative future that enables a bigger circular economy for plastic waste,” he said.

An innovative state-of-the-art sorting plant designed by ALBA Recycling will have the capacity to process more than 200,000 tonnes per year of post-consumer mixed waste into suitable feedstock for the production of virgin polyolefins, OMV said. This innovative sorting process will help the further extraction of polyolefins from a waste fraction that currently requires incineration, it said.

The innovative sorting process has been tested at industrial scale and the output has been successfully processed as feedstock in OMV’s ReOil pilot plant.

“We are delighted to combine the sophisticated chemical recycling of OMV with our world-leading sorting technology to take the next step in the circular economy for a world without waste,” said Dr Axel Schweitzer, owner of ALBA Recycling.

OMV was among the first companies to develop a technology for the chemical recycling of used plastics more than a decade ago.