This trade is inherently cross-border. Feedstock is collected where people live and eat, processed where there is capacity, and consumed where there is a mandate, and those are rarely the same place. We work on pyrolysis oil projects and feedstock flows across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, with team members in the Netherlands, Brazil, Scotland, England and the Czech Republic, and counterparty relationships considerably wider than that.
- 1Origin and producer established
- 2Documentation tested against the destination's rules
- 3Sanctions and trade measures screened
- 4Logistics and tankage confirmed
- 5Introduced only once those four hold
Distance is rarely the problem; documentation is. The same material can be straightforward from one origin and unusable from another because of what the receiving country requires on paper.
Pyrolysis oil projects
Pyrolysis is being built out in very different regulatory and commercial environments at the same time, and the questions differ by region. We are involved with projects and counterparties in:
- United Kingdom: our own brokers in England and in Scotland. UK counterparties are covered from the UK, not from the continent.
- Middle East: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar.
- Asia: India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia.
- Europe: Spain, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Turkey, Georgia.
- Americas: United States, Brazil, Chile.
What actually decides whether a corridor works
People ask which countries we cover. The honest answer is that the country is rarely the constraint. Four other things are, and they are worth checking in this order.
| Check | The question | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Certification | Is there a scheme certificate the buyer accepts, and does its scope cover what you actually do? | A trader certified without storage cannot claim material through a rented tank. Buyers check the scope, not just the certificate |
| 2. Chain of custody | Can you show where the material came from, in documents? | This is the most common failure, and it fails late: after the buyer is interested and before the vessel is fixed |
| 3. Names must match | Certificate, invoice, bill of lading and the shipper: same legal entity? | A mismatch stops the buyer's compliance desk cold, and no amount of explaining moves it |
| 4. The receiving permit | Is the destination installation permitted to accept this material under this classification? | The waste code follows the receiving permit, not the product. Get it in writing |
Trade measures change the arithmetic, not the legality. Anti-dumping duties, export rebates and quota changes move which origins clear economically, and they change more often than the underlying rules. Last year's calculation on a corridor is usually stale.
Where we work in practice: South East Asia and China for used cooking oil and fish oil, South America for animal fats and vegetable oils, North America for UCO and pyrolysis oil, and across Europe for everything. Contracts are in English on standard forms. We work in English and Dutch and we do not claim languages we do not have.
Why the region changes the deal
The same tonne of pyrolysis oil is a different commercial proposition depending on where it is produced and where it lands.
- Waste status and shipment. In the EU, whether the oil is a waste governs the entire paperwork chain, and since 2026 plastic waste movement itself has changed sharply. See waste plastics.
- Which claim is available. A circular polymer claim needs ISCC PLUS mass balance and a cracker. A fuel claim runs through the recycled carbon fuel rules. See plastic pyrolysis oil and recycled carbon fuels.
- Offtake proximity. A project without a realistic buyer within sensible freight distance has a different business case from one next to a cracker, regardless of how good the oil is.
- Feedstock security. Input quality, particularly PVC content, is decided by the local collection and sorting system, and that varies enormously between the regions above.
Feedstock and fuel flows
Alongside pyrolysis we work the established flows: used cooking oil and animal fats into European fuel production, POME and residues out of Southeast Asia, vegetable and technical oils, glycerine, fusel oil out of the ethanol producing regions, and finished FAME, HVO and SAF into obligated markets.
Our own people sit in the Netherlands, Brazil, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, where we have brokers in both Scotland and England. That matters most for origination and for verification: someone who can visit a site, look at a tank and ask the awkward question in person is worth a great deal more than another email chain.
Everyone here has their own patch, and their own languages
We are deliberately not a company where everybody does everything badly. Each of us covers a region and a set of products properly, and that is also why we can answer in more languages than a desk this size usually can.
| Netherlands, the desk | Founder and broker. Pyrolysis oil, waste-based feedstocks, renewable fuels, additives and off-spec placement. Works in English, Dutch and Frisian. |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom, England | UK counterparties and the British market, covered from the UK rather than from the continent. |
| United Kingdom, Scotland | Northern UK and Scandinavian-facing business. Works in English and French, which also opens France, Belgium, Switzerland and francophone West Africa. |
| Brazil | Latin American origination: ethanol co-products, acid oils, fats and pyrolysis projects. Works in Portuguese, including Brazilian Portuguese, and English. |
| Czech Republic | Central and Eastern Europe, and the certification route. Works in Czech, Polish, Russian and English, which covers Poland, Slovakia, the Baltics and a good deal of the CIS-facing trade. |
The languages we actually work in
Across the team: English, Dutch, Frisian, French, Portuguese including Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Russian. Write in any of those and you will get an answer from someone who speaks it.
We do not work in German, and we say so rather than promise it. For anything technical the working vocabulary is English anyway: Annex IX, ISCC, CIF, FOB and CFPP have no useful local equivalents. Summaries in fourteen further languages are on our international page.
What we do not claim
We are a brokerage, not a multinational with offices everywhere. Where we have depth, we have real depth. Where we do not, we will say so and either work through a partner or tell you plainly that you need someone else. That is a more useful answer than a map with pins on every continent.
Frequently asked questions
Which countries do you work with?
We broker between Europe and wherever the material or the buyer genuinely is: South East Asia and China for used cooking oil and fish oil, South America for animal fats and vegetable oils, North America for UCO and pyrolysis oil, and across Europe for everything. What decides whether a corridor works is not the country but whether the certification, the documents and the receiving permit line up.
Do you handle the export documentation?
We do not issue documents, and no broker should claim to. What we do is tell you which documents a European buyer will demand before they engage, and introduce you to the inspection companies, laboratories and forwarders who produce them. For a first-time exporter the paperwork is usually the bottleneck rather than the product.
What is the most common reason a cross-border deal fails?
Certification, not price. A seller with excellent material and no accepted scheme certificate cannot sell into European fuel at all, and finding that out after a vessel is fixed is expensive. The second most common reason is a documentation mismatch: the name on the certificate is not the name on the invoice, and the buyer's compliance desk stops the whole thing.
Do you speak the language of my market?
We work in English and Dutch. For everything else we work through the counterparty's own commercial language, which in this trade is almost always English, and we do not pretend otherwise. Contracts in this market are in English on standard forms.
Where do you have people on the ground?
The Netherlands, Brazil, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, with brokers in both Scotland and England. Counterparty relationships extend considerably further, across the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, but those five are where our own team sits.
Do you work on pyrolysis oil projects outside Europe?
Yes. We are involved with pyrolysis projects and counterparties in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Georgia, the United States, Brazil and Chile, alongside European projects.
Can you help a project that is still in development?
Often the most useful stage to involve a broker. The questions that decide a project's economics, which buyers can actually run the output, what the chlorine specification has to be, whether the waste status works for the intended destination, are cheaper to answer before the plant is built than after.
Do you arrange international shipping?
We advise on freight optimisation and supply chain routing and we can help find storage, but we are a broker rather than a freight forwarder and we do not issue bills of lading. See storage and logistics.
Which languages do you work in?
Across the team: English, Dutch, Frisian, French, Portuguese including Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Russian. That covers most of Europe, francophone West Africa, Latin America and a good deal of CIS-facing business. We do not work in German, and we say so rather than promise it.
Can you place cargo in regions where you have no team?
Sometimes, through partners and counterparty relationships. But we will tell you honestly when a region is outside what we can genuinely cover, rather than take an instruction we cannot execute.
Market news
Recent headlines from across the feedstock and renewable fuel sector. Nothing specific to this market has come through the wires lately, so this is the wider view. The links go to the publisher; we do not host or edit their reporting, and a headline here is not our endorsement of it. Scroll for more.
- Kimchi waste could become viable feedstock for bioplastics
- Braskem biobased polymer helps Deterra drug disposal pouch earn packaging awards
- Eni and PETRONAS to explore high-performance bio-gasoline
- Linglong signs $2 billion Egypt investment MoU
- BTMA to represent European national associations at Tyres Europe board meetings
- Osaka Gas claims STS LNG bunkering first in Osaka Bay
- ISWG-GHG 22: Non-profits react
- USTC brings Copenhagen-based offices together in new hub
- ORLEN instigates new Baltic regional energy initiative
- TotalEnergies Lubmarine launches lubricant for 4-stroke medium speed marine engines
- IMO carbon price heads for December showdown
- LyondellBasell: Pyrolysis Reactors Installed for MoReTec Plant in Wesseling
- Sustainable aviation fuel pioneer completes successful trials
- Louis Dreyfus Company to generate biogas from citrus waste
- Nature by Design: A decade of IUCN, Monaco collaboration driving circular solutions for biodiversity
- European Digital Sustainability Skills Conference
- UCL reacts to IMO ISWG-GHG: ‘Steady progress on the Net Zero Framework’ made but ‘high uncertainty’ remains
- ISWG-GHG 22: ‘Genuine willingness’ for further NZF progress, observes Chair
18 headlines, updated automatically. Last refreshed .
Who to ask about Where we work
Just ask. Developing a project, or looking for offtake in a specific region? Tell us where you are and what you have. You get Bart van den Brug on the other end, same working day, in English or Dutch, and across the team also in French, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Russian.
On how we work: on the feedstocks and fuels on this site we are a broker. We never take title, we do not trade our own book, and we are paid a commission on business that concludes. Additives are the one exception: those we also buy and sell for our own account, and we say in which capacity we are acting before you commit to anything. Either way you will hear it from us when the answer is no, or when your parcel is not ready for the conversation you want to have. A market read or a second opinion on a specification costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Happy to look at whatever you have, even if it is half an analysis and a question.
+31 6 115 83 448
bart@sustainablecommodities.eu
Sustainable Commodities 3 B.V., Lemmer, the Netherlands
Ask about Where we work
Specification, volume, location and certification are enough to start.
Or e-mail us directly: bart@sustainablecommodities.eu
Last reviewed 08 September 2026. Regulatory references are given for orientation and are not legal advice: verify against the current Official Journal text before contracting.