OMV and Interzero builds Europe’s largest sorting facility for chemical recycling

OMV has announced the final investment decision to build an innovative sorting plant developed by Interzero to produce feedstock for chemical recycling.
OMV will invest an amount of over €170 million to build this state-of-the-art facility in Walldürn, southern Germany.
Production start of the new plant is expected to take place in 2026 and the groundbreaking ceremony is already scheduled for November 20.
The sorting facility will be the first of its kind to produce feedstock for OMV’s chemical recycling on a large industrial scale.
The ReOil® technology developed and patented by OMV is a chemical recycling innovation that converts plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled into pyrolysis oil – a valuable resource.
Dr Alfred Stern, CEO of OMV, said: “Technology and innovation are at the heart of progress. This is why we are investing and forming partnerships to develop innovative technologies and scale them up to an industrial level.”
Dr Axel Schweitzer, Chairman and owner of Interzero, added: “With Interzero, we are pursuing our vision of a world without waste. Chemical recycling and mechanical recycling can complement each other and help us make this vision a reality.”
Interzero operates five sorting plants for lightweight packaging in Germany and sorts about a third of Germany’s lightweight packaging waste in the form of over 800,000 metric tonnes per year.
The cooperation between OMV and Interzero will ensure the supply of sustainable and high-quality feedstock for OMV’s chemical recycling, helping to close the loop for plastics.
A new ReOil® plant with a capacity of 16,000 tonnes per year is currently under construction at OMV’s Schwechat site in Austria.
Like the existing pilot plant, the new plant will have International Sustainability and Carbon certification (ISCC PLUS), which ensures traceability throughout the supply chain and guarantees that the value chain meets all environmental and social standards.