Tarragona leads plastic recycling innovation with two new plants

The province of Tarragona will host two pioneering chemical recycling facilities to address the low global plastic reuse rate.

Generic image of plastic waste being sorted in a recycling plant.
IA

Generic image of plastic waste being sorted in a recycling plant.

The province of Tarragona is positioning itself at the forefront of the energy transition with the implementation of two new chemical recycling plants, aiming to transform plastic waste management and significantly increase its reuse.

Currently, only 9% of plastics produced worldwide are recycled, a figure that new chemical recycling technologies aim to drastically improve. These facilities are crucial for processing a large portion of waste that traditional mechanical recycling cannot handle.
The strategic consultancy Boston Consulting Group has highlighted the urgency of this issue, noting that global plastic production reaches 350 million tons annually. Of this total, 70 million are incinerated and 250 million end up in landfills or polluting the environment, including 10 million tons that reach the oceans.

"Plastic waste is a big problem with few hopes."

the Catalan company
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge has supported this initiative, granting 12.7 million euros in subsidies to six projects in the province in its latest call. Among these, two chemical recycling plants stand out: Greenertis, located in the Riu Clar Industrial Estate in Tarragona, and 2G Chemical Plastic Recycling, planned for Flix (Ribera d'Ebre).
These two projects represent a joint investment of 80 million euros and the creation of 100 jobs, offering an innovative solution for complex plastic waste management.