The Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL) has profiled the Belgian packaging recycling system as part of a series of article and found that the country recycles 93% of its post-consumer packaging – which is the highest recycling rate in the EU.
There are few different aspects which make this system such a success:
Collection – the Green Dot packaging compliance scheme managed by Fost Plus in Belgium for the past 15 years, means that companies have to declare the amount of packaging they put on the market and pay a fee which is proportional. Citizens are required to buy colour-coded recycling bags to use at home and sort their packaging waste into the correct bags. A higher fee charged for non-recyclable waste gives an incentive to use the correct bags.
Waste management system – A mixture of kerbside collection, container parks and incinerators with magnetic extraction has proved to work well.
Sorting – the SITEL sorting centre in Liege serves one million people and uses electro spectroscopy, eddy current separation and electromagnets. The stream is then also checked manually.
Scrap – recycled steel is cleaned and sold back to the industry.
