Veolia has been selected to develop five strategic projects within the framework of the Circular Economy PERTE program, a support initiative launched by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) to accelerate the transition to a more resource-efficient production model. These initiatives focus on plastic recycling in Spain and obtaining high-quality secondary raw materials for industry.
Thanks to this contract, the company will strengthen the modernization of its facilities in Torremejía (Badajoz), Alcalá de Guadaira, and Los Palacios (Seville) , where more than 130.000 tons of plastic waste are already managed annually. The projects will allow for the introduction of cutting-edge technologies, new recycling solutions, and improvements in the quality of recycled material, with a clear focus on reducing waste, minimizing the generation of microplastics, and increasing the use of recycled plastic in key sectors.
A key PERTE for the circular economy of plastics in Spain
The Circular Economy Strategic Plan (PERTE) is a €150 million initiative aimed at mobilizing investments to reduce waste generation and promote reuse, recycling, and recovery. In this first round of funding, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has selected 115 projects from 201 proposals received, distributed across 14 autonomous communities, with an implementation period extending to October 2027.
Within this package of initiatives, Veolia has secured €9 million in funding to deploy five projects focused on plastic recycling. The company emphasizes that this institutional support recognizes both its innovative capacity and its technical expertise in the treatment of plastic waste and the production of recycled materials suitable for demanding applications.
The funded actions are aimed at consolidating secondary raw material supply chains that allow industry to reduce dependence on virgin resources, a growing priority in the European Union in the face of supply security challenges, pressure on natural resources and climate objectives.
According to the company, PERTE projects have become one of the most powerful tools available to Spain to promote innovative industrial projects that accelerate the transition to more circular models, in which waste becomes a resource and materials have multiple useful lives.
Modernization of the Torremejía plant: from complex PET to advanced recycling
A significant portion of the projects will be developed at Veolia's plant in Torremejía (Badajoz), which specializes in recycling food-grade PET . This facility will focus on improving the processing of particularly complex plastic fractions, such as PET trays and opaque PET, which currently pose major challenges for mechanical recycling for food-grade applications.
The goal is to move towards chemical recycling solutions that allow these materials to be recovered and transformed into new, high-value resources, preventing them from ending up as energy recovery products. This change in approach represents a further step in the waste hierarchy, prioritizing material recovery over simply obtaining energy.
In addition, the plant will incorporate new real-time sorting, washing, and quality control systems , tools that will help increase the purity of recycled PET and, at the same time, reduce the potential risk of microplastic release during the process. These technologies will allow for fine-tuning the treatment, detecting deviations, and correcting them automatically.
Another key aspect is the adaptation of the facilities to the potential needs arising from the future implementation of the Deposit, Return and Refund System (DRRS) . Having equipment prepared to process materials from this system will facilitate the integration of larger volumes of post-consumer packaging into recycling circuits.
Alcalá de Guadaira and Los Palacios: higher quality grains and agricultural recycling
The other projects will be deployed at the plants in Alcalá de Guadaira and Los Palacios (Seville) , which are dedicated to the processing of industrial, post-consumer, and agricultural plastics. At these facilities, the investments are focused on significantly improving the quality of the high- and low-density polyethylene granules produced.
By incorporating advanced technologies, Veolia aims to enable these recycled granules to be used in more demanding applications , particularly in packaging and other uses requiring stable technical properties and strict quality controls. Increasing the yield of these recycled materials opens the door to replacing more virgin plastic in various products.
The Seville plants will also incorporate high-precision filtration systems and more efficient washing processes , specifically designed to optimize the recycling of plastics from the agricultural sector. These waste materials typically have high levels of dirt and complex mixtures, requiring specific technologies to recover high-quality material.
With these improvements, the company aims to address a very common need in many European agricultural areas: to properly manage the plastics used in greenhouses, coverings and irrigation , preventing them from ending up abandoned or poorly managed and turning them into a stable source of recycled raw material.
Innovation, eco-design and collaboration with industry
Veolia's strategy regarding the Circular Economy PERTE (Program for the Recycling of Packaging) is not limited solely to investment in machinery and processes. The company actively works with manufacturers and brands to make their packaging more recyclable , providing them with ecodesign services, detailed recyclability analysis, and certifications that guarantee the products' end-of-life performance.
This collaborative approach aims to ensure that packaging is designed with recycling in mind from the initial design phase, reducing the presence of difficult-to-separate materials, problematic inks, or incompatible layer combinations . The better products are designed for recycling, the easier it is to obtain high-quality secondary materials that can be reintroduced into the production chain.
According to the company, these types of services help businesses adapt more quickly to European regulatory requirements regarding packaging and waste , which are moving towards more ambitious targets for recycled content and reuse. At the same time, they strengthen the competitiveness of industries that are committed to more circular solutions.
Veolia's country director in Spain, Daniel Tugues, emphasizes that the awarding of these five projects " endorses the company's technical capacity and commitment to transforming plastic waste into high-value resources" and fits with the vision of accelerating the transition to a more innovative and sustainable economy.
Green public procurement and promotion of recycled plastic
In addition to its industrial activity, Veolia promotes initiatives to make public procurement a driver of demand for recycled materials. In this regard, the company has collaborated with the University of A Coruña Foundation and ANARPLA on the development of a “Guide for Promoting Recycled Plastic in Public Procurement.”
This tool compiles environmental clauses and criteria ready for inclusion in tender documents, with the aim of making it easier for public administrations to incorporate recycled plastic into their contracts. Given the weight of the public sector in the European economy, green procurement can have a significant ripple effect throughout the entire value chain.
The guide aims to serve as a foundation for bidding entities to better define their environmental requirements, avoid potential technical or legal barriers , and feel more confident when demanding recycled materials in construction projects, supplies, and services. In this way, institutional demand can consolidate stable markets for secondary raw materials generated by plants like Veolia's in Spain.
From the perspective of the circular economy, this combination of industrial investment, technological innovation, ecodesign and sustainable public procurement is key to closing the plastic loop, guaranteeing both the supply and demand of quality recycled materials.
With these five projects under the PERTE Circular Economy program, Veolia is reinforcing its role as a key player in advanced plastics recycling in Spain , combining improvements at its Badajoz and Seville plants with ecodesign initiatives, certification, and green public procurement. Collectively, these actions aim to increase the availability of high-quality secondary raw materials for European industry, reduce dependence on virgin resources, and move towards a model where plastics are managed as valuable resources, not simply as waste.
