Swedish Plastic Recycling’s billion investment to make plastics circular without any CO₂ emissions

Swedish Plastic Recycling (Svensk Plaståtervinning), which is owned by a large part of the Swedish business community, is investing 1bln SEK (£84.5mln) with the aim to build the world's largest and most modern facility for plastic recycling – Site Zero. The facility will be able to recycle all plastic packaging from Swedish households and make plastics circular – completely without any CO₂ emissions.

Located in the city of Motala, Site Zero can manage four types of plastic – in the future, the aim is to make the facility able to sort and recycle twelve different types.

Any small parts of plastic that remain after the sorting process are separated to be sent to chemical recycling, or to become new composite products. Swedish Plastic Recycling claims that zero packaging goes to incineration at the facility. The aim is to have the site completed in 2023.

‘There is today no other facility in the world that has that capability,’ explains Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Swedish Plastic Recycling.

‘We are also preparing for washing and granulation of the plastic in phase two, which is planned for 2025. Then our entire plastic flow in Sweden can become circular.’

Site Zero will be completely climate neutral with zero emissions, claims Swedish Plastic Recycling. The facility is powered by renewable energy, and the small amount of plastic and other waste that cannot be recycled will be sent to energy recovery without climate emissions. 

There are also plans to produce renewable energy by covering the building’s large flat roof with solar panels.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) also contributes with a financing of just over SEK 180 million through the climate investment aid programme known as Klimatklivet.