Belgian experiences on the management of packaging waste Oct 2012/Marc Adams... · Belgian...
Transcript of Belgian experiences on the management of packaging waste Oct 2012/Marc Adams... · Belgian...
Belgian experiences on the
management of packaging waste
ACR+ EPR Club Lunch Seminar
EPR scheme and EU packaging law
Marc Adams, Director (a.i.)
Interregional Packaging Commission
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Contents
• 1. Belgium: a federal state
• 2. Federal legislation
• 3. Cooperation agreement (of
November 4th 2008)
• 4. Accredited organisations
• 5. Belgian recycling figures
• 6. Role of the regulator (IPC)
• 7. Conclusions
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1. Belgium: a federal state
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3 Regions:
• Flanders (6 mio
inhabitants)
• Wallonia (4 mio)
• Brussels (1 mio)
Regions are
competent for waste
management
1 uniform collection
scheme, but with
regional (and local)
variations
1. Belgium: a federal state
• 3 regions (Flanders, Wallonia,
Brussels)
• 3 communities (Flemish, French,
German speaking)
• 1 federal state
exclusive competences
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1. Belgium: a federal state
• Federal state = competent for:
– Foreign affairs
– Defence
– Social security
– Income taxes
– Internal (Belgian) market
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1. Belgium: a federal state
• Regions & Communities =
competent for:
– Culture
– Education
– Economy
– Environment (waste, water, soil, …)
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1. Belgium: a federal state
Packaging situation:
European packaging directive 94/62/EC (as
revised by directive 2004/12/EC) has 2
major chapters:
– Recycling and recovery targets for
packaging waste → Regional competence
– Essential requirements for the marketing
of packaging → Federal competence
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2. Federal legislation
• Federal law concerning product
standards of december 21st 1998
– Transposition of essential requirements
(packaging directive)
– Partial transposition of CEN-standards
• Ecotax on beverage packaging
• Ecotax on “harmful” products like
plastic carrier bags
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3. Cooperation agreement
• Inter-regional Law: valid on the
entire Belgian territory
• 1st version → cooperation
agreement of May 30th 1996
• Since 2009: 2nd version →
cooperation agreement of
November 4th 2008
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3. Cooperation agreement
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• Responsible company:
– Belgian producer (= packer/filler)
– Belgian importer
– Belgian industrial consumer
– Belgian producer/importer of (empty) “service packaging”, i.e. products that are only packed at the point of sale, like carrier bags
• Double responsibility:
– Household packaging waste
– “Industrial” (i.e. non-household) packaging waste
3. Cooperation agreement
Obligations:
• To meet the recycling and recovery targets
=> minimum of 300 kilos annually
• To report to the authorities
• To introduce a packaging prevention plan
(larger responsible companies) => minimum
of 300 tons annually (or 100 tons production in
Belgium)
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3. Cooperation agreement
Recycling and recovery targets for companies
Global targets:
• 80% overall recycling – From 2009 for household packaging waste
– From 2010 for industrial packaging waste
• 90% overall recovery for household packaging waste (from 2009)
• 85% overall recovery for industrial packaging waste (from 2010)
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3. Cooperation agreement
Recycling and recovery targets for companies
Specific targets per material:
• 50% recycling for metal
• 60% recycling for glass
• 60% recycling for paper/cardboard
• 60% recycling for beverage cartons
• 30% (mechanical) recycling for plastics
• 15% recycling for wood
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3. Cooperation agreement
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• Individual compliance (not frequent)
• Accredited organisation:
– Fost Plus for household packaging waste
– Val-I-Pac for “industrial” (i.e. non-household) packaging waste
4. Accredited organisations
Status:
– Private sector initiative
– Government accreditation
– Non profit organisation
– Must cover the totality of Belgium
– Must prove recycling and recovery
– Strict government control
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4. Accredited organisations
Fost Plus collection system:
– Intermunicipalities collect household
packaging waste for Fost Plus: • Paper & cardboard (curbside collection)
• Coloured & non-coloured glass (bottle banks)
• PMD/PMC-fraction (curbside collection):
– P = plastic bottles (PET) & flasks (HDPE)
– M = metals
– D/C = “drink cartons” = “tetra pak”
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4. Accredited organisations
– Fost Plus pays full cost of: • Collection
• Sorting of PMD/PMC fraction
– Fost Plus organises recycling of
collected & sorted fractions
– At all stages: public tender
procedures
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4. Accredited organisations
Green dot:
• Fost Plus gives his members the right to use
the logo
• The “green dot” logo has no official status
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4. Accredited organisations
Responsible company
Household
Waste
Product
Fost Plus
(Inter)municipalities
Packaging
Packaging waste
IPC Full cost of
selective collection
of packaging waste
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4. Accredited organisations
Responsible company
Household
Waste
Product
Fost Plus
(Inter)municipalities
Packaging
Packaging waste
IPC Full cost of
selective collection
of packaging waste
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Recyclers
4. Accredited organisations
Val-I-Pac system:
– Val-I-Pac doesn’t organise collection or
recycling of industrial packaging waste
– Val-I-Pac gathers data on collection and
recycling from private waste collectors –
collectors have to give proof of recycling
– Val-I-Pac gives financial incentives to
industrial consumers aimed at increasing
selective collection
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4. Accredited organisations
Responsible company
Industrial consumer Waste
Product
Val-I-Pac
Waste collectors
Packaging
Packaging waste
IPC
Recyclers
Financial incentive for sorting of
packaging waste
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5. Belgian recycling figures
2010 Fost Plus recycling figures:
Paper/cardboard 100% (116,4%)
Glass 100% (111,7%)
Plastics 37,9%
Metals 100% (102,1%)
Drink cartons 80,4%
Others 0,8%
Total recycling 83,2%
Total recovery 94,5%
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5. Belgian recycling figures
2011 Fost Plus recycling figures
(provisional):
Paper/cardboard 100% (114,6%)
Glass 100% (114,7%)
Plastics 37,5%
Metals 100% (102,1%)
Drink cartons 79,0%
Others 0,8%
Total recycling 82,7%
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5. Belgian recycling figures
2010 Val-I-Pac recycling figures:
– Plastics 55,7 %
– Paper/cardboard 96,1 %
– Metals 85,1 %
– Wood 64,6 %
– Others 10,7 %
– Total 81,6 %
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5. Belgian recycling figures
2011 Val-I-Pac recycling figures
(provisional):
– Plastics 55 %
– Paper/cardboard 97 %
– Metals 83 %
– Wood 63 %
– Total 81,2 %
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5. Belgian recycling figures
• Global belgian recycling in 2009 (including individuel compliance, free-riders and new reusable packaging): 79,1%
• Global belgian recycling in 2010: 79,8%
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5. Belgian recycling figures
Source: European
Commission, DG
ENV, study on
“Use of economic
instruments and
waste
management
performances”, 10
April 2012 29
6. Role of the regulator (IPC)
• To responsabilize industry (the responsible
companies) AND to defend the interest of the
public, for instance: – To approve the collection scheme proposed by the accredited
organisation, but also “enlarge” it, when necessary
– To make sure everybody gets a correct and just payment (for
instance, in the not household sector, smaller companies)
• To make sure that the data are 100% correct!
• To control and to sanction the remaining
free-riders! This is important for the
functioning of the system
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6. Role of the regulator (IPC)
Not the role of the regulator = to control all
members of the accredited organisations
– Members’ declarations are controled by the
accredited organisations – principle of selfcontrol
– IPC prefers to control the control procedures on its
efficiency – to do this, a sample of members’
declarations must be checked
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6. Role of the regulator (IPC)
Also for the recycling figures, the regulator
imposes its control procedures on the accredited
organisations, BUT it shares the end
responsability for the correctness of the figures:
- In the accreditation text of Val-I-Pac a complex
procedure is imposed, which included a programme
for controls on recycling (after trading) in the Far
East
- The IPC does its own “double-check”
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7. Conclusions
• These is a need for a stable legal framework – it takes
time to create an efficiently functioning system
• Communication to the public is very important –
contradictions have to be avoided at all cost – it’s very
useful to have just 1 collection scheme (with several
variations) on the entire Belgian territory
• Controllability is paramount! The gov. administration
must be able to verify all the data and to certify that the
recycling/recovery targets were really met
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7. Conclusions on competition
• Competition needs to be guaranteed, but not necessarily
on the organisational level!
• A monopoly on the organisational level isn’t harmful as
long as all risk of monopoly abuse is avoided; this isn’t
very difficult to do
• When there is competition between accredited
organisations: a level playing field needs to be created!
Without a level playing field, there is no fair/honest
competition
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7. Conclusions on competition
• Belgium has a fully functional competition (on the
operational level) AND the scale advantages of an
organisational monopoly
• In Belgium accredited organisations have to be “non for
profit”
– This is the best guarantee that there won’t be an abuse of
monopoly
– This also guarantees prices are as low as they possibly can be
– There are no profit margins to fill!
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7. Conclusions
• Important to develop and support selective collection at
the source and act agains incivilities (littering, incorrect
sorting,…)
– In Belgium the (inter)municipalities are obliged by law to
organise the selective collection
– (Inter)municipalities play a major role in the fight against
incivilities
• Important to collect (selectively at the source) for
recycling only! This means making choices!
– Easily recyclable materials should be collected for recycling!
– Others: not!
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7. Conclusions
• Economic instruments can be very helpful, when used
properly (landfill-bans, taxation on waste incineration,
pay-as-you-throw) – they can also be very harmful,
when used incorrectly:
– “Green certificates” for the incineration of wood have
had (in Belgium) a clear negative effect on wood
recycling
– Unbalanced “eco-taxes” can create unwanted market
distortions and uncontrollable parallel imports
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Thank you for your attention!
To contact us:
– IVCIE, Avenue des Arts 10-11, 1210 Brussels
– www.ivcie.be
– Tel: 02/209 03 60
– Fax: 02/209 03 98
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