Repsol has announced it making a €26 million investment in the installation of a new production line at its Puertollano Industrial Complex in Spain.
With a production capacity of 25,000 tons of recycled plastic annually, the new line will serve to significantly expand the current volume - 16,000 tons - of the company’s Reciclex polyolefins produced at the site. The new unit is scheduled to come into operation at the end of 2024.
Repsol’s Reciclex range of resins consists of high and low-density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE) with a mechanically recycled plastic content of 10% and 80%. These are used to produce rigid and flexible packaging for non-food use, such as cleaning product containers or product packaging bags.
This investment is in line with recent European and Spanish regulations, which are aimed at achieving a recycled content target of 30% for plastic packaging by 2030.
Repsol said that the company would also be starting up a new polyurethane foam recovery plant in Puertollano this year; the first in Spain and on the Iberian Peninsula.
To ensure a reliable and constant production at the site, Repsol has entered into various alliances with recyclers to secure a consistent volume and supply of recycled products. In this way, customers will be assured of being provided with recycled materials of consistent quality.
The circular economy is an ongoing focus for Repsol. The company has a stated commitment to recycle the equivalent of 20% of its polyolefin production by 2030, and to reach a production of 100,000 tons per year.
It has further acquired stakes in Acteco, an integrated waste management and recovery company, and in Enerkem, a leading technology company in waste gasification, thus expanding the scope of its activities in the sustainable space.
In addition, an integrated model of decarbonisation technologies based on improving efficiency, increasing low-emissions power generation capacity, producing low-carbon fuels, and developing new customer solutions is being introduced aiming to reduce the industry's carbon footprint.