Córdoba, December 2025. Saneamientos de Córdoba (Sadeco), the city’s municipal cleaning and waste management company, has awarded Nantek the contract to build an industrial complex to transform the plastic waste arriving at the Córdoba Environmental Complex (CMC). The planned investment amounts to 65 million euros across two phases, as reported by Cordópolis on 23 December 2025.
The project aims for Córdoba to reach the “Zero Plastic Landfill” milestone in 2027 and become one of the first European municipalities to achieve it, provided the planned timescales are met.
What the project is
The plant will be built on a 10,000 square metre plot, one hectare, within Sadeco’s facilities at the CMC. There, the plastics that currently end up in landfill will be treated to turn them into second-life petrochemical feedstocks and biofuels. The initiative is part of the municipal company’s Sadeco 5.0 strategy and is being developed in collaboration with Córdoba City Council, as reported by Última Hora, drawing on information from Europa Press.
According to the company itself, Nantek is the first European company to win a public tender for plastic waste elimination.
Project figures
- First phase: an investment of 22 million euros and capacity to treat up to 16,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year.
- Second phase: an additional 43 million euros to increase the number of industrial reactors and exceed 54,000 tonnes a year, as Sadeco’s needs evolve.
- Employment: 25 jobs in the first phase; with the expansion, up to 150 direct jobs and more than 300 indirect jobs in suppliers, ancillary services and logistics.
- Estimated environmental impact over 30 years: around 630,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided and 350,000 tonnes of plastic that would no longer reach landfill.
These figures were reported by, among other outlets, Residuos Profesional. According to El Conciso, the first phase will start with a reactor with a capacity of 8,000 tonnes, to which a second will be added, and the facility will operate for the 30 years of the concession, extendable by a further 10.
The role of Sadeco and the City Council
Sadeco acts as the awarding entity and provides the site within its environmental complex, which receives thousands of tonnes of plastic every year. The project forms part of its Sadeco 5.0 roadmap, which includes other renewable energy installations. Córdoba City Council is involved as an institutional partner in the project alongside the municipal company.
Nantek is taking on the investment for the first phase and, together with the consultancy Mount Street Group, through its Madrid branch, is studying various financing options for each of the phases.
Timeline
Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2026. The target date for achieving zero plastic landfill in the city is 2027. The second phase has no fixed date and will depend on how Sadeco’s treatment needs evolve.
Carlos Uraga, CEO of Nantek, said that the project “will mark a turning point in the management of urban waste in a large city” (translated from Spanish), as reported by Residuos Profesional.
The technology: plastic pyrolysis
Pyrolysis breaks plastics down using heat in the absence of oxygen, without combustion. The main output is a pyrolysis oil that the petrochemical industry uses as a feedstock to make new plastics or fuels.
As detailed by El Conciso, Nantek’s technology accepts all types of plastic except PET, including film and mixed or degraded plastics, fractions that currently have few outlets in mechanical recycling. In an interview with Crónica Vasca, Uraga explained the company’s approach: “We have made pyrolysis profitable and attractive in the market”.
About Nantek
Nantek is a Basque technology company that designs, builds and operates pyrolysis plants to transform non-recyclable plastic waste into second-life raw materials and fuels. Since 2022 it has operated a plant at the Port of Bilbao and it has offices in Córdoba and Dubai. Its CEO is Carlos Uraga. For further information, see the contact page.
