Neste starts operations at world's largest liquefied waste plastic upgrading facility

Neste has commissioned a €111 million liquefied waste plastic upgrading unit at its Porvoo refinery in Finland, capable of processing up to 150,000 tons annually. The facility enables chemical recycling of hard-to-recycle plastics into high-quality feedstock for the petrochemical industry, addressing limitations of mechanical recycling.

Finnish energy company Neste has commenced operations at a new liquefied waste plastic (LWP) upgrading facility at its Porvoo refinery complex, representing an investment of €111 million. The unit, which will process up to 150,000 tons per year, is designed to upgrade oils derived from challenging waste plastic streams, including multi-layer packaging, mixed plastics, and contaminated materials that are typically destined for incineration or landfill.

Production ramp-up began in early 2026 following the completion of construction at the end of 2025, with throughput expected to increase gradually based on market and legislative conditions. Neste has been processing liquefied waste plastic since 2020, and the new facility integrates this capability with conventional oil refining operations. Using a mass balance approach, the company attributes recycled content from the processed waste to its Neste RE™ product, which can achieve over 70% reduction in virgin fossil resource consumption and more than 35% lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to incineration, according to company disclosures.

Neste Oyj is a Finnish oil refining and renewable products company focused on waste-based and circular economy solutions. The facility positions the company as a key enabler of chemical recycling at industrial scale, addressing a critical gap in plastics circularity where mechanical recycling is constrained by feedstock quality.

For the petrochemical and packaging industries, this development expands access to verified recycled content for high-performance applications. However, the company has noted that current European Commission calculation rules under the Single Use Plastics Directive may limit refineries' ability to contribute to EU recycled content targets, creating regulatory uncertainty for similar investments across the region.