Dutch Company to Make Diesel from Plastics Waste

A Dutch environmental technology company plans to build 15 plants that will produce diesel fuel from plastics waste in 14 European Union countries, the firm said on Tuesday.

Envosmart chairman John Bouterse told Reuters the plants will be built in the next five years with a total investment of 200 million euros ($234 million) and will be based on an environmentally-friendly technology.

"We will start building the first plant in Germany after the summer ... and then build plants in Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands next year," he said.

The German plant will produce 38 million litres of diesel per year by processing 42,000 tonnes of plastics waste.

The other countries where Envosmart will build smaller factories are Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Italy, and the Czech Republic.

The Dutch firm will sign a licensing agreement on Wednesday with Australian company Ozmotech, which has developed the technology to transform plastics waste into diesel.

Envosmart said the production process captures most of the polluting gases and liquids, making the diesel environmentally clean.

Envosmart's fuel can be used in any standard diesel engines of trucks, buses, trains, boats, heavy equipment and generators, the company said.