A serious fire broke out at plastics recycler Source One Plastics in Eicklingen, Germany, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. According to reports from the fire brigade, the fire spread quickly through a recycling hall and to the roof of the structure. As many as 150 firefighters from several local brigades were deployed to combat the blaze. The crews were stood down around 3 Tuesday afternoon after ten hours on site. The sorting and recycling facility is located around 45 km north east of Hanover.
Firefighters said their efforts to extinguish the fire were hampered by burning plastic as well as by photovoltaic modules installed on the roof of the hall and by compressed air tanks in the building. No injuries were reported. The weather presented a further challenge as the site had to be cleared of snow and the firefighting water began to freeze in some areas.
As of midday Tuesday, the cause of the fire had not yet been established and police had launched an investigation. Source One's offices were not affected, and the hall housing the recycling plant is structurally sound. However, the building's roof has been destroyed and the local fire brigade noted that in the course of their damping down work, it had been necessary to forcibly open and flood facility machinery and conveyor lines.
Managing director Kai Hoyer said that a comprehensive damage assessment could not yet be carried out as the hall had not been released by the police. The company nevertheless assumes that the affected plant components can be repaired. The scale of the property damage and the timetable for repair work are to be clarified in the coming days.
The Eicklingen sorting and recycling plant is operated by Source One Plastics, a joint venture between 23 Oaks Investments and Lyondell Basell. The facility has a design capacity of around 70,000 tonnes a year, according to the plant's owner. The focus of the facility's operations is processing mixed plastic streams from household and commercial waste for use as recyclate. The plant first went online in 2024. Two additional rigid plastic sorting lines were added in July 2025. Earlier company statements have put the investment involved in the construction of the facility in the high tens of millions of euros.
