Neste has commissioned a new processing plant for liquefied plastic waste at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland.

The new plant, in which Neste has invested 111 million euros, is specifically designed to process oil derived from low-grade plastic waste, i.e. multi-layer used packaging, mixed plastic waste and contaminated plastics that are unsuitable for mechanical recycling and would otherwise be incinerated or sent to landfill, according to a statement from the oil company and producer of renewable fuels and raw materials for the chemical and plastics industries. With a capacity of up to 150,000 tonnes per year, Neste claims it is the world’s largest plant of its kind. Production ramp-up began in 2026 and is set to proceed gradually depending on market and legislative developments. The company states that it has been processing liquefied plastic waste (e.g. pyrolysis oil) since 2020. According to the information provided, Neste will process the liquefied plastic waste together with crude oil at the new processing plant. The process is said to reduce the use of primary fossil raw materials by over 70 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by more than 35 per cent compared to the incineration of plastic waste. A mass balance approach is applied to attribute the recycled raw materials used in the process to the recycled Neste-RE product. Maiju Helin, Director of Polymers and Chemicals at Neste, explains: “However, the European Commission’s current calculation rules on recycled content in the Single-Use Plastics Directive risk limiting refineries’ ability to meet the EU’s recycled content targets. To ensure Europe’s competitiveness, we must ensure that the calculation rules are amended to include refineries under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation”.
 
Sources:

• Neste press release (16.3.2026)
• Photo: © Neste