Cleaning up this waste is the responsibility of the companies that created it, but there are many cases where the perpetrator has gone bankrupt or where a site was polluted by previous owners in the days when waste laws were not even a twinkle in the regulator’s eye.

According to environmental group Bond Beter Leefmilieu Vlaanderen (BBLV), there are more than 75,000 plots of land across the region that have yet to be cleaned up. To complicate matters further, there will probably be less government funding this year.

The basic budget for clean-up will be €2 million more than in 2009, which was €23.6 million. But last year there was an extra €10 million from a special fund for these projects. “There is no decision yet whether we will again get an additional budget for 2010. That decision will be taken later on this year,” says Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege.

“A budget cut would mean there would be a higher risk of contamination of the ground water and certain areas of land that just cannot be used,” says Erik Grietens of BBLV, who adds that, even with the previous budget, it would already take up to 50 years to clean these plots.

But it’s essential to do so. Aside from the impact on the environment, industrial waste can also be a danger to us. “There will be a negative effect for those living nearby. You don’t want children playing on these grounds. It would be bad for their health,” says Grietens.

While the budget has come under pressure, there is much innovation when it comes to dealing with industrial waste. Companies are investigating ways to reuse and recycle materials, and ridding the ground and waters of noxious chemicals is turning into something of a business.

Reusing materials is the most eco-friendly method, as no resources are needed to convert them into something else. For example, where once industrial plants would have dumped water used for cooling into a nearby river, this water is now cooled and reused.

After reuse, the next preferred option to deal with waste is recycling (when the material is converted into something else). Materials technology company Umicore, for instance, has a business unit dedicated to the recovery of precious metals from electronic scrap and spent catalytic converters.

Flemish waste agency Ovam says the results are already evident, even if waste remains at high levels – barring a dip in the last few months of more than 10% as the recession caused a slump in manufacturing activity.

“Figures for the total amount of waste are stable, but the figures for reuse and recycling are improving,” says Ovam spokesman Jan Verheyen, adding that rubbish going to landfill, the least desirable waste disposal, was thus in decline.

Ovam is also busy with plans to introduce chemical leasing, whereby industrial giants would no longer buy the chemicals used to make their products but would effectively borrow them. “This has a great benefit because the waste streams are taken back,” says Verheyen.

The agency has also published plans to promote the development of environmentally- friendly goods and services, or eco-design. Says Verheyen: “We try to think about the environmental impact of a product over its whole life cycle, from cradle to cradle.”

To aid companies in their assessment, Ovam has produced a tool called an “ecolizer”, which helps them measure the impact of products “and see how recyclable they are”.

As well as dealing with waste streams, companies are also finding inventive ways to deal with old industrial waste, such as growing plants to suck up the chemicals (a process known as phyto-remediation) and converting sites for other uses.

In Ghent, there is a project underway to convert an old textile plant into blocks of flats and office space. The project, Alsberge & Van Oost, is, according to Grietens, a “fine example” of how former sites can be cleaned up and reused. The site, which is close to the N466 Drongensesteenweg, is expected to house up to 400 residential properties and is being renovated in a manner that takes into account the environment and the archaeological value.

Such projects are becoming more commonplace. Dominique Devos, a lawyer with DLA Piper in Brussels, says: “We haven’t paid much attention to it in the past, but a lot of these sites have huge potential.”

They also benefit from tax breaks. “There is new legislation whereby projects are selected by the Flemish government and carried out in a joint public/private partnership. There is a fiscal incentive in that you don’t have to pay tax when the development is sold.”

The payoff

Cleaning up the environment has to be managed in a holistic way. Phyto-remediation, for example, can take decades to be effective. Then the plants must be disposed of properly. “There’s a huge delay,” said BBLV’s waste management expert Kristof Debrabandere.

There’s also a risk in public/private partnerships that the goal of making a profit will crowd out environmental aims. However, concerns about image in an age where consumers demand that companies clean their act up is helping keep things on track.

Umicore was the first company in Belgium to sign a deal with authorities to clean up its old sites, extracting waste zinc from the soil. Eandis, which owned a lot of gas sites, has also agreed to clean itself up.

Lawyer Devos said: “Stock-listed companies are choosing voluntary agreements. This gives them a clear timing on the obligations they have,” says Devos. Meanwhile, Debrabandere adds that companies like Umicore, historically big polluters, have reinvented themselves as eco-friendly groups. “They couldn’t say they had turned a page and left that legacy. They would have been accused of greenwashing.”

Given the raft of legislation being introduced at a European level, companies that jump on the bandwagon now will be ahead of the pack. It might be a dirty business, but it’s one that will ultimately pay off.

Making good use of bad rubbish

Sifting through a pile of junk that’s been buried in a landfill hardly sounds like an appealing prospect, but the potential reward has got Groupe Machiels pushing up its shirt sleeves and delving in.

The group, based in Limburg, is about to become the first company to start up landfill mining in Belgium. Its plan is to sort through an old rubbish dump in Remo, re-disposing the waste. Valuable things are found in rubbish dumps – for example, metals that can be recycled. But Groupe Machiels will also be eyeing the garbage as a precious source of energy. All the paper, cardboard and vegetation, or biomass, will be burned to provide power.

“We are planning to take 15 million tonnes of waste, conduct water purification [of the leachate] and make electricity,” says a company spokeswoman. “We will also recycle or reuse the materials.”

Environmentalists have welcomed the plans, albeit with some scepticism. Kristof Debrabandere , a waste management expert, argues that there should be consideration paid to methane emissions which could be released once the site is mined. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is found in large quantities in landfills.

The project is still in its development phase, but once it is up and running, more than half of the waste could be converted into green electricity for 200,000 families a year for a period of 20 years.

Such projects kill two birds with one stone: Europe is panicking about its energy supply and cutting its greenhouse gas emissions so it needs to find more ways to create green energy and landfill sites are just a noxious blot on the landscape.

www.groupmachiels.com