Gazprom Neft opens Gatchina plastics-recycling plant

Packaging recycling in Gatchina

GATCHINA, Leningrad Region — Gazprom Neft has opened a plastics-recycling plant with annual capacity of 8,600 tonnes. The facility processes polypropylene and polyethylene packaging into secondary polymer granules.

The company plans to supply Russian plastics manufacturers and use granules internally for waterproofing materials in industrial and civilian construction. It expects internal use to reach 3,200 tonnes annually by 2030.

Gazprom Neft

The plant has a closed-cycle water-treatment system. Its filtration equipment captures small plastic particles, cleans the water and returns it to production, according to the company's description of the installation.

Earlier packaging collection initiatives

Gazprom Neft announced a packaging-collection initiative for the Silk Way 2023 rally on Jul 6, 2023. The programme envisaged collection points at the main service stops in Kazan, Ufa, Lipetsk and Samara.

The announced collection programme covered plastic bottles and aluminium cans. After the rally, the company planned to send the recovered materials for manufacturing:

synthetic fibres and insulation from plastic;
construction materials and bicycles from aluminium.

The company also announced collection of worn tyres for processing into rubber crumb, including material for sports-ground surfaces. Yana Belyakova, head of marketing in Gazprom Neft's regional sales directorate, expressed hope that participants would support the new packaging-collection initiative.

Recycled PET in retail water bottles

A separate packaging programme brought G-Drive drinking water in bottles containing up to 25% recycled plastic to Gazpromneft filling stations in St Petersburg from Nov 13, 2023. The bottles use Sibur's Vivilen rPET material.

In that PET programme, collected bottles go to Total Cycle in Tver for shredding, label removal, washing and drying into flakes. The flakes then go to Sibur's Polief enterprise in Blagoveshchensk, where incoming inspection and further cleaning precede blending with virgin polymer at high temperatures.

Gazpromneft, Sibur and Zenit football club also organised a collection and educational area at Gazprom Arena. Its activities included bottle returns through a reverse-vending machine and workshops making keyrings from recycled plastic.