How a ‘can’t be bothered’ culture is harming the recycling sector: we must get better at sorting

Since the sorting lines started in 2022, the Val’Up sorting centre in Glin has recorded around thirty fire incidents. What were the culprits? A stray battery, a broken toy, a (laughing) gas cylinder, all incorrectly put into the PMD bag.

If we extend this to all six PMD sorting centres in Belgium, incidents resulting from incorrect sorting occur on an almost daily basis: everything from jammed lines caused by large objects to injured employees due to a buried needle and the development of smoke. On average, every PMD bag contains three incorrectly sorted items, representing a total of 42,000 tonnes in the last year. What too few people realise is that businesses are the ones footing the bill for these sorting errors.  

Businesses bear the entire cost of selective collection, sorting and recycling of their single-use packaging: a total of 336 million euros per year. Fost Plus thus reimburses the intermunicipal organisations and waste operators for the collection, the sorting centres and the cost to bring the sorted packaging to recycling. In the end, any increase in the costs of collecting and incinerating incorrectly sorted material will inevitably be passed on to the general public. Not to mention the fact that the incorrectly sorted material is lost in this way: material that could potentially have been given a second life if it had been sorted correctly. In reality, society as a whole bears the brunt of an individual’s incorrect sorting.

For sorting centres like Val’Up, it’s a different problem: they have to operate in fear of an incident that will really shut them down. It’s like a sword of Damocles hanging over the sector’s head, and the preventive measures taken in conjunction with private and public operators only redress the balance to a certain extent. The risks are still there. The risks to expensive, high-tech infrastructure. The risks to the sorting and, consequently, the recycling of packaging materials. And above all, the risks to everyone involved in the collection, transportation and sorting of waste and packaging. Insurers’ growing reluctance to underwrite the sector is an ominous sign.

So where does the solution lie? The issue was raised with Minister Coppieters, the Walloon Minister for the Environment, and his staff during a visit to Val’Up. One key point that emerged from the tour was that the quality of sorting is going down. This comes at a time when the upcoming European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation requires ever better recycling and the use of ever more recycled materials. Citizens will need to be aware of the impact of their actions. Intermunicipal organisations and waste operators will need to monitor proper sorting at source even more rigorously. Companies will need to ensure that their packaging is optimally sortable and recyclable. And governments will need to continue to take responsibility by addressing the issue with citizens and monitor the correct implementation.  

Why? Because, ultimately, we are all responsible for preserving our planet’s resources for future generations.