Repsol announced on Thursday the completion of a shareholding arrangement with Acteco, the Alicante-based company belonging to Erum Group, focused on plastics recycling. The deal increases Repsol’s stake to 27 percent and deepens its long-standing collaboration with Acteco, a partnership that began in 2018 and has since matured into a strategic alliance for recovering and reinserting recycled plastics into production cycles.
This move positions Acteco for continued growth and a significant expansion of its recycling capacity over the next five years. The two groups emphasize that the partnership will accelerate the company’s ability to process and reuse plastic waste across their network. Acteco maintains headquarters in Ibiza and operates facilities in Valencia, A Coruña, Zaragoza and Algeciras, reporting last year a turnover of 38.9 million euros and a 40 percent year-on-year increase in activity, with profits surpassing 2.1 million euros, up 72 percent from the previous year according to Trade Registry accounts. These figures reflect the company’s strengthening footprint in the plastics recycling sector. (Source attribution: Repsol press materials and Acteco financial disclosures)
The collaboration with Repsol will supply Acteco with greater access to plastic waste streams and strengthen its product portfolio within the Repsol Reciclex range, which features a higher content of recycled inputs. This aligns with Repsol’s broader push to expand recycled content across its product lines and support sustainable chemistry initiatives. (Source attribution: Repsol product portfolios and corporate statements)
Repsol has reiterated that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is a central transformation objective, with a strong emphasis on circular economy principles. Within this framework, the company highlights industrial complexes designed for low or negative carbon footprints and outlines projects that convert waste into renewable fuels and 100 percent circular polymers used in sectors such as automotive, healthcare, construction and packaging. (Source attribution: Repsol sustainability report and corporate disclosures)
Partnership
The two entities have cooperated since 2018 to promote polymer recovery at the end of their life, reintroducing high-value-added polymers into new products for automotive, healthcare, construction, infrastructure and packaging industries. In 2020, Repsol and Acteco launched a joint project to expand the capacity of Acteco’s recycled materials facility in Ibi. This step reinforces Repsol’s objective to recycle an amount equal to 20 percent of its polyolefin production by 2030. (Source attribution: corporate announcements and project briefs)
The Executive Director of Refining and Chemistry at Repsol stressed that the operation aligns with the firm’s strategic commitments to the United States market and to decarbonization and circular economy initiatives as essential levers for reaching net zero emissions by 2050. (Source attribution: Repsol executive statements)
Erum group invested 12 million in a plastics recycling facility
Acteco’s founders, Juan Manuel Erum and George Ramis, indicated that Repsol’s increased stake would hasten Acteco’s development. They stressed that the investment reinforces Repsol’s leadership in the plastics recycling sector and strengthens the circular economy strategy, enabling entry into new materials and markets. (Source attribution: Acteco leadership statements and press coverage)
Acteco has more than 25 years of experience in plastic waste management and recycling. Its principal shareholder is Erum Group, the family holding company behind a global chain of hanger suppliers and other brands connected to major retailers, including Zara and several members of the Inditex group as well as HM, C&A and El Corte Inglés. (Source attribution: corporate history and market disclosures)