OMV Opens Plant for Plastic Recycling
Facility Aims to Enhance Circular Economy
OMV’s new plant can process up to 16,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle mixed plastic waste annually - equivalent to the annual plastic waste generated by 160,000 Austrian households.
“The essential materials of the future need to become more sustainable and circular," commented Alfred Stern, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of OMV. "OMV’s chemical recycling technology plays a pivotal role in driving growth in our Chemicals segment. The start-up of the new ReOil plant marks a significant milestone on our path towards achieving climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest. Complementing mechanical recycling, ReOil processes plastic waste that would otherwise remain unrecyclable, reintegrating it into the value chain. Through our Strategy 2030, we are advancing circularity as a cornerstone of our responsible transformation.”
ReOil, developed by OMV in 2009, aims to enhance the sustainability of plastics by reintegrating valuable resources into the value chain and avoiding disposal through incineration or landfill. The technology transforms post-consumer mixed plastic waste into pyrolysis oil, which is used to produce sustainable base chemicals. These chemicals are then converted into everyday applications such as food packaging, healthcare products, and components for electric vehicles. By 2030, ReOil is expected to achieve a 34 percent reduction in CO2 emissions if post-consumer mixed plastic waste is chemically recycled instead of incinerated.
The ReOil pilot plant at the OMV Schwechat refinery has been operational since 2018, achieving nearly 30,000 cracking hours and processing over 2.1 million kilograms of plastic waste sustainably. The success of the pilot plant led to the construction of a larger facility, which OMV has now completed and started. Both ReOil plants are ISCC PLUS certified.
OMV is now developing a full-scale industrial plant for chemical recycling, pending internal approvals. On March 12, 2025, OMV secured up to €81.6 million in EU funding for this industrial ReOil plant, the largest public grant ever awarded to the OMV Group.