Waste management activities (landfill, incineration, etc) cause environmental pollution. Reducing and avoiding this pollution as much as possible contributes to a healthier environment and hence a better quality of life.

Also, the increasing production and consumption leads to an increasing demand of materials. This leads to depletion of resources - often not renewable - and to environmental pressures caused by the exploitation, transport and treatment of these resources. Therefore, Belgium is developing the recycling and re-use market, introducing material-efficient technologies and stimulating more environmentally friendly consumption.

The policy on waste in Belgium is under regional jurisdiction. Since many indicators are differently defined or calculated in the three regions of Belgium, most indicators are calculated separately for the three regions instead of calculating one Belgian indicator.

Because the amounts of industrial waste are calculated in different ways in the three regions of Belgium, the regional amounts of industrial waste are reported separately. 

Municipal waste is all waste collected by the municipalities. It contains selectively collected waste streams (glass, paper and paperboard, metals, construction and demolition waste) and residual waste. This residual waste contains also litter, waste from the litter bins in the streets and bulky waste.

Of the total amount of municipal waste collected in 2008, 1 % went to re-use, 63 % to composting or recycling, 2 % towards pre-treatment (drying-separation), 31 % to incineration with energy recovery and 24 % to landfills.

The proportion of municipal waste incinerated has remained fairly constant since 2000. The proportion of waste composted/recycled increased slightly, from 58 to 63%.

The proportion of municipal waste landfilled decreased between 2000 and 2008, from 13 to 24 %. Since 1 January 2006 the ban on landfilling for non-recyclable flammable municipal waste has been more strictly applied.

The data concern municipal waste (household waste and household like waste, excluding sewage sludge and construction and demolition waste to match with the definition of municipal waste of Eurostat). Household like waste is collected together with household waste by municipalities or intermunicipal companies. It is waste from shops, small enterprises, schools or municipalities for example.

The proportion  of municipal waste going directly to pre-treatment centres  is increasing. In 2008, almost 36 % of municipal waste was sent to pre-treatment centres. 

On the other hand, the proportion of municipal waste going directly to incinerators and to landfills keeps on reducing, mainly because of take-back obligations, the ban on landfilling  of certain types of waste,  the application of a new tax decree (from 2008 only practices aimed at waste valorisation are no longer taxed) and subsides given for implementing separate collection.

either. In addition, there may also be an underestimation due to lack of data on communal container parks which are not available before 2006 and represent around 25 000 tonnes. Those 25 000 tonnes are not included in the table below.

Re-use concerns a small stream, collected by the social economy or from the container parks. There are no significant data about those streams. Seven major streams of municipal waste are recycled: PC, PMC, green waste, glass, metal, wood and WEEE. All those sorted streams are sent out of the region for treatment, except for green waste which is treated in a centralised compost plant. There is no landfill in the Brussels-Capital Region and the residual waste is burned in the regional incineration plant (with energetic valorisation). Bulky waste which can not be re-used or recycled is sent to disposal out of Brussels.

Source : IBGE based on data coming from the Agence régionale pour la propreté

Waste from enterprises includes waste from the trade and services sectors. Primary waste results at the moment a product becomes waste for the first time, i.e. at the first producer. Secondary waste is excluded for this indicator. The figures are calculated by extrapolation of reported data.

In 2007, 36 % of the primary industrial waste went directly to recycling or use as secondary raw materials, 5 % went directly to incineration and 3 % went directly to landfills. The remaining 56 % of the primary industrial waste was pre-treated or conditioned first. Examples of conditioning are sorting, compaction, compression and thickening. The conditioned waste is ultimately also used as a secondary raw material, recycled, incinerated or landfilled.

Secondary waste arises at waste treatment companies, who sort, recycle, incinerate… existing waste. 40 % of this secondary waste goes to recycling, 20 % to landfill or incineration. The additional 40 % undergoes a second pre-treatment step before going to final treatment.

As an approximation, one can say that after two treatment steps, 57 % of the primary waste goes to recycling, 9 % goes to landfilling and 11 % goes to incineration. The additional waste is pre-treated several times.

The shift in 2005 between recycling and pre-treatment occurs due to a reclassification of waste treatment facilities and due to the fact that waste producers report only the first stage in the waste treatment chain. This results in a high percentage of pre-treatment.

The amount of industrial waste generation per treatment is based on a sample of the extractive, manufacturing and energy production industries in the Walloon Region and is not extrapolated to the whole Walloon industry.

In the Walloon Region, the percentage recovery from waste generated by large and medium-sized manufacturing and energy production industries is estimated to vary between 80 % and 90 % (in the period 1995 to 2007). Such waste is largely valorised for its materials content. In 2007, about three-quarters of industrial waste were recovered from the sectors of metallurgy, chemistry and food (with a recovery rate above 85 %).

The Brussels-Capital Region is characterised by a reduced industrial sector (10 % of the enterprises) compared to the service sector (almost 90 % of the enterprises) and a predominance of offices (340 000 employees) and SME (95 %). Industrial waste generation is therefore reduced.

A rough estimation assesses the industrial waste generation between 1,5 to 2 million tonnes in the Brussels-Capital Region. This estimation is based on a compilation of data derived from different sources: composition analysis, application of ratio from literature for different sectors, use of collector data, etc. However, due to the different sources of data, double counting is possible (for example: waste produced by offices and schools can be collected by the public operator).

Industrial waste is often only sorted and sent to treatment plants outside the Region, leading to a lack of data about treatment once waste has left the Region.

Those estimates are based on various sources, which is why the year of reference is not the same for the different waste categories (main sources: ’Estimation des quantités de déchets non ménagers générés et traités à Bruxelles - RDC environnement – 2006’, ’Evaluation des flux de déchets pour le secteur des bureaux - RDC Environnement –2008’ and annual reports of the Agence Régionale pour la propreté).

The control of the packaging waste is coordinated by the Interregional Waste Packaging Commission, which was founded by the three regions. As a result, national amounts of packaging waste are reported below.

1997-2002: Recycling in percentage of waste arising

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/packaging/data.htm

Since 2003 no composites had to be reported to the European Commission and since 2005 a new method is used to calculate the recycling percentage. This method also takes into account renewable packaging. For paper and fibre board, glass and metals, the recycling percentage is higher than 80 %, glass packaging is even fully recycled. For plastic, the recycling percentage stays approximately the same, around 38 %, and wood packaging reaches a maximum in 2007 (71 %). The total recycling percentage increases to 80 % in 2007.

In 2008, 3 million tonnes of municipal waste were collected, which represents 494kg per inhabitant. That is an average of 7 kg per inhabitant less than the year before. Of this 494 kg per inhabitant, 172 kg is residual waste, which is 2 kg per inhabitant less than in 2007 and the lowest value since 2000. The quantity of municipal waste remained fairly stable over the period 2004-2008.

In 2008, almost 462 kg per inhabitant of municipal waste were collected in the Walloon Region, which represents 12 % less than EU-27 average. Since 1997, separately collected waste amounts have increased to achieve, in 2008, 245 kg/inhabitant. On the other hand, residual waste amounts has decreased to achieve, in 2008, 218 kg/inhab. Progress in separate collections of waste fractions may be explained by a growing use of the local recycling centres (container parks).

Sources: SPW-DGARNE(DGO3)-DEMNA-DEE ; SPW-DGARNE(DGO3)-DSD-DIGD

The following table shows municipal waste production collected by the public operator per inhabitant (see comments for indicator described in the “State and impacts” part). It has been decreasing  since 1999. It shows that around 25 % of waste is sorted.

In the interpretation of the ratio ‘MW/inhabitant’ one must take into account that the city is a very important basin of employment (about 53 % of the workers are commuters coming from the other regions) and has an important international and touristic status, resulting in additional waste. Moreover, there is an underestimation of the real population (cf. non-registered inhabitants and students not domicile in the Brussels-Capital Region). It is also expected that 30 % of this waste is produced by small enterprises which do not have a private waste collector.

It should be recalled that the data are not really comparable between the three regions (see comments for indicator described in the “State and impacts” part). Moreover, due to its strongly urbanised character, the area of private gardens in the Brussels-Capital Region is less than the two other regions (less green waste). The trends of the data observed in the Brussels-Capital Region could possibly also be explained by a more important recourse of the companies, trade, offices to private waste collectors.

Considering the particular context of the region (urban territory characterised by a dominant service sector due to its capital and international functions), this indicator is not relevant for the Brussels-Capital Region.

As one can see in the figure below, the GVA increases more quickly than the waste production in Flanders between 1995 and 2007. There is decoupling between the gross value added in the industry and waste production from the industry (containing waste from the extractive, manufacturing industry and electricity production). If the reliability of the estimated waste production for each year is taken into account in the trend analysis, the decoupling is even absolute, since the waste production declines. However, it is not clear whether this decline is significant.

The GVA in chained Euro’s  for Flanders is a rating and therefore only the linear trend line is indicated in the figure.

Industrial waste data are the result of an extrapolation. The blue dots give the extrapolated values, the blue line a linear trend line. The green line is the result of a weighted regression on these data. Because not all data are equally reliable, different weights are allocated to the different values (more reliable, more weight). Also the fact that the data contain paired observations is taken into account. Special software is used for this weighted regression.

The generation of industrial waste is based on a sample of the extractive, large and mediu-sized manufacturing and energy production industries in the Walloon Region and extrapolated to these three sectors. The generation of waste ¹ by extractive, manufacturing industry and electricity in the Walloon Region increased sharply between 1997 and 2000, and then fell between 2000 and 2007. Since then, waste disposal has hovered around 6 300 kt. In descending order, the sectors producing the largest quantities of waste in 2007 were: (i) metal and metal-working industries (2 529 kt), (ii) food industry (1 211 kt), (iii) chemical, rubber and plastics industry (1 016 kt), (iv) timber industry and wood manufacture (560 kt).

The amounts of waste generated reflect the relative sizes of the different industrial sectors within the Walloon economy, and are strongly linked to production volumes. A proportion of this waste is, moreover, considered to be unavoidable waste, that is waste which is inevitably generated by current industrial processes. Changes in manufacturing processes and improvements of resources productivity, owing to the use of integrated technologies, are, however, enabling progress to be made in decoupling economic growth from the generation of waste.

In 2008 72 % of household waste was collected separately. The proportion of waste collected separately had remained fairly stable since 2004. The target is to achieve a separate collection level of 75 % by 2010 (Implementation Plan for the Environmentally Responsible Management of Household Waste).

Steady progress has resulted in a doubling of the amount of household waste and household-like waste fractions collected sepa­rately in the Walloon region since 1997. In 2008, almost 62 % of household waste and household-like waste was collected separately, which is in line with the targets of the Plan wallon des déchets – Horizon 2010 (PWD).  

This evolution is mainly explained by the take-back obligations, the ban on landfilling of certain types of waste, the application of a new tax decree (from 2008 only practices aimed at waste valorisation are no longer taxed), the application of a tax on residual waste amounts and subsides given for implementing separate collection.

The Brussels-Capital Region doesn’t have specific data about household waste, but only about municipal waste. A ratio of 70 % for the residual stream and for the paper and carton is derived from literature. The particular economic situation of the Brussels-Capital Region (cf. 2. industrial waste) and the mixture of the different functions of the city explain the difficulties to get separate data for household-like waste and household waste. The table below only contains waste collected door-to-door, waste from container parks is not included.

Minerals (28 % of the total material requirement), metals (28 %), fossil fuels (18 %) and biomass (18 %) contribute the most to the TMR. Though more and more fuels are consumed, the contribution of the fossils, which consists mainly of fossil fuels, increases only slightly. This is because the hidden streams become smaller through the transition from pit coal and brown coal to gas and oil. The contribution of minerals and metals varies sharply and is mainly due to the large hidden streams connected to diamond and non-ferrous metals, of which the import strongly fluctuates during the considered period. The contribution of excavation decreases under the influence of a decreasing dredging activity.

The total material requirement for the Walloon economy (TMR) amounted to approximately 289 Mt or 84 t/inhab in 2007. Globally, the TMR is almost 2.5 times the DMI (TMR = DMI + hidden flows), which highlights the relative importance of local unused material flows and indirect flows from abroad. The material flows related to metals and non metallic minerals accounted for 2/3 of total TMR. These values reveal the importance of these two types of industrial activity in the Walloon economy. In opposite to DMI, there is no decoupling between TMR and GDP.  

This indicator is not available for this region (very difficult to estimate with enough accuracy for a city).

An outlook scenario doesn’t exist yet for industrial waste. For household waste, OVAM has a model predicting the amounts of household waste until 2015 (Implementation Plan for environmentally responsible household waste management, January 2008). This model is shortly described below. The possible increase in the amounts of household waste due to economic and population growth must be compensated by waste prevention.

Plan Scenario

The results of the Plan Scenario from the ‘Implementation Plan for environmentally responsible household waste management’ (January 2008) are used as an outlook. It uses 2005 as a reference year and presents scenarios for the period 2005-2015. In this scenario, one takes into account a population growth of 0.3 % and an economic growth of 2 %. The total production of household waste is calculated by assuming an autonomous growth. Organic waste is assumed to grow as fast as the population. The other fractions in household waste grow by 2 % on average, in function of growth in population and economy.

Furthermore, for each fraction tasks for prevention and for the reuse of products are set.

For household waste the goal for selective collection is set at 75 % by 2010. This level is maintained during the rest of the plan period.

In the plan scenarios, the efforts for prevention and selective collection are intensified, expanded and optimised where possible.

Results

The aim is to maintain a constant waste production with regard to 2000, which amounts to 560 kg/inhabitant, by innovation and new initiatives. This is shown in figure 13. This would correspond with a relative decoupling of the amount of household waste and economic growth, as well as population growth.

The amount of household waste for final treatment decreases to 150 kg per inhabitant in 2010. Between 2010 and 2015 the amount of waste for final treatment stagnates around 150 kg/inhabitant.

This decrease in residual waste means that in the period of 2010-2015, an annual average of 921 000 tonne of household waste will go to final treatment, compared  to 978 000 tonnes in 2005. The amount of comparable combustible waste of companies, collected by the municipalities, amounts to 860 000 tonnes in 2005. Taking into account a reduction of 15 % of this waste from companies, this quantity decreases to 740 000 tonnes in 2015. Bearing in mind the incineration and pre-treatment facilities at the moment of publication of the Plan Scenario, there will be a shortage of 272 000 to 434 000 tonnes in capacity in 2015. However, nowadays this shortage is already solved. This amount is pre-treated and accordingly becomes highly calorific. It is incinerated in two new installations.

The Walloon Region is currently evaluating the results of the different actions carried out under the Walloon Waste Plan 2010 (Plan Wallon des Déchets - horizon 2010 (PWD-2010)), in preparation for developing a new plan for 2020. In this context, various scenarios are being developed, taking into account orientations taken in the new regional policy statement 2009-2014, the population and economic growth, opportunities to develop new treatments, the result of prevention efforts, environmental and social impacts, or the capabilities of the waste management infrastructures. The results of these outlook scenarios are expected in late 2010.

Plan Scenario

The available data on wastes produced in the Brussels-Capital Region make it difficult to establish long-term tendencies. It is generally recognised that the quantities of municipal waste produced per inhabitant continue to increase in Europe. To reverse this tendency the regional authorities implement waste prevention and management plan.

The fourth Regional Waste Prevention and Management Plan has been recently approved and reinforces the idea of dematerialisation initiated in the third one. It aims to achieve measurable prevention targets of numerous waste streams for 2020. Those reductions concern specific waste streams (food, paper, superfluous packaging, etc.) and specific segments of the public (households, workers, pupils, …):

• Reduction of 37 kg/inhabitant/year of household waste (targets per streams: food, paper, superfluous packaging, …)

• Reduction of 37 kg/worker/year office waste (targets per stream: food, paper, superfluous packaging, …)

• Reduction of 6,5 kg/pupil/year of school waste (targets per stream: food, paper, superfluous packaging, …)

• Recycling of 50 % municipal waste

• Reduction of 10 % of non-households waste production

• Recycling of 50 % industrial waste

• Recycling of 90 % of construction and demolition waste

The Brussels-Capital Region also participates in the campaign ’-100 kg/inhab/an‘, coordinated by the ACR+, whose objectives are translated in the above mentioned plan.

These efforts are all the more necessary as a strong growth of the population of Brussels is expected for the next decades (+170 000 inhabitants from 2007 to 2020).

In the recent past, Flanders has booked some nice results in the field of selective collection and recycling. In the coming years the OVAM wants to consolidate these results but also to come up with new projects. The goal is to turn Flanders into a strong cycle economy with an as low as possible use of raw materials and materials, since they are sparse.

By closing cycles – or by producing cradle-to-cradle – one can offer solutions for waste and avoid the use of new and valuable materials. Beside the environment also the economy goes well with this new approach. Investments in ecological innovation, eco-efficiency, eco-design can give the economy new impulses and turn Flanders into a leader in this new market.

The strategic plan

The strategic plan is a mix of new challenges and old recipes for success. It focuses on innovation and cradle-to-cradle but also on efficient waste treatment. The most important goals concerning waste are summarised below.

• Close material cycles

The efficient closing and thorough changing of material cycles are the fundamentals of sustainable materials management. More than nowadays, waste products have to be kept in the economic cycle.

• Produce eco-efficiently

By focusing on eco-efficiency and eco-design, the OVAM helps companies to lower their costs and to decrease their ecological impact. At the same time the OVAM wants to persuade the managers and designers that ecologically responsible products and process designs are profitable.

• Innovate

The OVAM goes for innovation. It stimulates system innovation by the Transition Network Sustainable Materials Management. By chain management projects the OVAM supports innovative companies and takes initiative in a few priority sectors and joins initiatives of others.

• Focus on waste of companies

The OVAM ensures that the waste production of companies decreases and that the degree of recycling increases. Furthermore it plans to create a legal framework that promotes the use of waste as a base material. The OVAM will continue the policy in the field of waste from households.

• Environmentally responsible consumption

By going along with the offer of environmentally responsible products, emphasising the environmental advantages and setting a good example, the OVAM wants to steer the consumer in the direction of a more environmentally responsible consumption.

 Here is a list of the major responses undertaken and planned by the Walloon Region in the field of household and industrial waste:

• The main guidelines for the prevention of household and household-like waste in the Walloon Region (approved by the Walloon Government on 3 April 2009). These guidelines provide a dynamic and structuring frame for preventive actions for greater efficiency (whoever the stakeholders). Only actions within this framework will now be financially supported by the Region. Six priority waste streams have been identified because of their impact on the environment (organic waste, paper and paperboard, packaging and disposable items, bulky waste, special household waste).

• The ’tax‘ decree of 22 March 2007 promoting prevention and recovery of waste in the Walloon Region. This decree establishes a new tax system in order to better take into account the priority that should be given to reducing waste generation while improving the responsibilities of the various operators in the selection of waste treatment operations.

• The AGW of 18 March 2004 which gradually bans the landfilling of certain types of waste.

• The AGW of 25 April 2002 related to take-back obligations of certain types of waste.

• The decree of 5 December 2008 related to the management of contaminated soils is applied since 18 May 2009.

In line with the Regional Policy Statement 2009-2014, a new Walloon Waste Plan 2020 is in preparation. This plan will participate in reducing emissions of greenhouse gas emissions and contribute actively to the reduction of environmental impact of waste generation. In this context, the Government will first conduct a study to assess the potential cost-benefit of the re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery including energy, economical, social and environmental impacts, and paying particular attention to flows whose management remains unknown (waste from SME and services for example).

The fourth Regional Waste Prevention and Management Plan was recently approved and reinforces the idea of dematerialisation initiated in the third one. In general, Brussels sticks to the European waste hierarchy and lays its focus of waste management activities on waste prevention followed by re-use and recycling. Waste that still has to be disposed of should preferably be incinerated. Only if no other possibility remains may waste be landfilled.

The fourth Plan aims at strategic objectives and is based on general principles of urban governance: waste management through public policies, awareness and information of citizens and enterprises and accountability of waste producers.

The principal goals of the plan are reinforcement of waste reduction at its source, increase of re-use, modernisation of waste management tools and  maintenance of a strong public authority in the field of waste collection and management. 

Prior axes can be resumed as follow :

• development of a sustainable consumption and a struggle about waste : one must pass from waste sorting to purchase sorting;

• development of preventive actions targets for households and enterprises

• new proximity services creation: repairing, re-use

• a service of waste advisers available for enterprises

• sorting obligation for all the actors

• the progressive extension of the polluter pays principle through a tax on incineration and the application of the extended responsibility producer principle to hazardous waste producers.