Sorting it out

For newcomers who arrive in Flanders, the recycling programme can seem like more of a confusing burden than a positive path to sustainability. The list of rules and regulations is long and possibly only available in Dutch. And if you make one false move, you’ll find your bag still lying on the kerb that evening.

To make it worse, locals don’t always follow the rules themselves, which makes it harder to get advice from your neighbour. It’s understandable that those new to the region are confused about what’s seen as a complicated list of restricted items, particularly when it comes to plastics.

Youri Sloutzky works for Fost Plus, the Brussels-based company that manages recycling in Flanders, including plastic bottles, metal containers and drink cartons, or PMD. The rules for sorting, he says, haven’t changed since the company began collecting recycling in the mid-1990s. But an average of 15% of PMD collections in Flanders is made up of incorrectly sorted waste – known as residue. This amount reaches 25% in Brussels and a whopping 30% in Antwerp.

Facing a fine

In the past 15 years, PMD residue has almost doubled in the port city, causing Antwerp to begin enforcing stricter rules in May. Now, recycling collectors will place a red sticker on the blue PMD bags if there are three or more incorrect items. Anyone who receives this red sticker should take out the residue and keep it for the following week’s general trash collection – or face fines of up to €250 for illegal dumping.

Residents of other Flemish cities are already aware of the red stickers, but Antwerp is only now enacting the policy after seeing the significant increase in residue. In the Brussels-Capital region, the red stickers are used, but “not always systematically,” says Sloutzky.

Anyone who lives in Antwerp or Brussels knows this is still a flawed system because those in shared apartment buildings place their waste in one pile for collection, making it difficult to know whose bag has the red sticker. Since 2007, Antwerp has created communication campaigns with Fost Plus to help inform the public, but so far these efforts haven’t been effective.

One solution for urban dwellers may be a pilot project by Fost Plus to place 1,000-litre PMD containers in neighbourhoods that make it easier to see which items are allowed. The openings to deposit the recycling will be in the shape of the recycled item, such as a thin slot for paper and a small, round opening for bottles. There are also easy-to-understand labels that clearly demonstrate what is and isn’t allowed in the containers, similar to the glass bottle banks.

“We’ve tested it in a few municipalities, including the Brussels area, and so far it’s been successful,” says Sloutzky. This container project has a residue level of 12-15%, which is much better than the blue bag results in Brussels. Sloutzky says there are plans to bring these containers to Antwerp in the coming months. Another recent addition is 600 bins to sort waste and recycling in the airport at Zaventem.

While containers are one way of tackling the issue, another is a standardised label on PMD packages, which will note the shapes that are and aren’t recyclable, says Jeroen Gillabel, policy advisor on sustainable materials management for Flemish environmental organisation Bond Beter Leefmilieu.

According to Gillabel, the Dutch grocery store Albert Heijn, which has branches across Flanders, uses sorting labels for its products, but it’s sometimes incorrect, so the better option is if Fost Plus creates one system. “A simple yes or no, a ‘this type of bottle isn’t allowed in the blue bags’, would make it much easier,” he says.

Flemish laws are moving towards more recycling. Since 1 July, businesses in the region have been required to sort PMD, and Brussels-based businesses will be required to do the same from next year.

Fost Plus, Bebat (which recycles batteries and torches) and Recupel (the electronics waste collector) are working on a joint mobile phone app that will tell residents where to take specific forms of recycling.

And when people move to Brussels, they receive a packet with recycling instructions when picking up their identification cards. Sloutzky says Fost Plus is considering ways to offer sorting advice in Dutch classes for new immigrants.

Currently, Fost Plus recycles 40% of all Belgian plastic packaging. Because there are multiple forms of plastic that cannot be put in the blue PMD bags, this is the key type of waste that causes confusion.

PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which is commonly used for transparent bottles containing water and soft drinks, and HDPE (high-density polyethylene), used in non-transparent milk, shampoo and detergent bottles, are the two kinds of plastic Fost Plus currently recycles. Yoghurt and butter containers, as well as meat and vegetable packaging, aren’t recycled and are the most common items thrown in the blue bag by mistake.

Costs too high

Fost Plus looked into increasing the plastic it recycles, but concluded that the costs were too high compared with the environmental benefits. “That could change in the future,” says Sloutzky. “A big problem is it’s difficult to find industries that can use the materials from other forms of plastic.”

Under current federal law, Fost Plus only has to recycle 30% of plastic waste, says Gillabel. If the government increased this amount, he believes Fost Plus would have to find ways to adjust their policies.

“It’s technically possible to recycle butter and yoghurt containers,” says Gillabel. “In the past, they had to invest money in other plastic recycling, and now it’s economically viable; so it was exactly the same as where the restricted plastics are now.”

Fost Plus notes that many municipal container parks, where residents can go to recycle large or toxic items such as electronics and building materials, take plastic bags and other plastics that it doesn’t. But its studies show that most people don’t make the effort to recycle in this way, particularly as there is a limit to how often you can enter a container park per year.

Sloutzky also admits that container parks sometimes ship their materials to Asia, which means there’s no way of knowing whether the recycling is done in a way that doesn’t harm human health – or done at all. In Belgium, residue plastics are used to replace fossil fuels in power plants and other industries.

This year, the EU released the Green Paper on plastic waste, which is creating a discussion about what solutions should be considered at a European level.

www.fostplus.be