From 2030, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) sets binding targets for all EU Member States on recycling and the use of recycled content. Whether a country meets those targets depends largely on how its extended producer responsibility (EPR) system is organised. Does one EPR organisation per waste stream perform better, or can a market with several competing PROs (Producer Responsibility Organisations) do just as well? A recent EUROPEN study gives a clear answer. Belgium, with Fost Plus as the single PRO for household packaging, shows exactly why.
Not the market itself, but the speed of decision-making
The EUROPEN study reaches a nuanced conclusion: market structure in itself does not determine recycling performance. What does matter is how quickly, cost-efficiently and simply a system can make four design choices that prove decisive everywhere: eco-modulation, national coverage, sorting infrastructure and financial transparency. That is exactly where the single-PRO model has a structural advantage. One organisation in central control of the entire collection and sorting chain can adjust these levers faster than a group of competing operators, each with its own pricing logic and contracts.
What it delivers in practice
Fost Plus shows that this advantage is far from theoretical. Across the four pillars:
- Granular eco-modulation: 16 separate fee categories for plastic packaging, from €0.36/kg for clear PET bottles to a deterrent fee of €4.4/kg for non-recyclable packaging. According to the study, it is precisely this granularity that best predicts recycling performance.
- 100% national coverage: contracts with all 36 intermunicipal waste management companies guarantee one uniform sorting message, in cities and rural areas alike.
- Robust sorting infrastructure: between 2019 and 2021, Fost Plus expanded the number of plastic sorting streams from four to eleven, and also added new technology for small aluminium items.
- Financial transparency: Fost Plus achieves the maximum score (6 out of 6) on the EUROPEN transparency index, with a contractual link between recycling results and payments to the intermunicipal companies.
The result: a recycling rate of 76% for flexible plastic packaging, compared with an EU average of just 13.1%. Between 2020 and 2021, the share of plastic processed locally rose from 9% to 75%, with six operational sites expected by the end of 2026. The volume of non-recyclable packaging on the Belgian market fell from 20,000 to 7,000 tonnes between 2019 and 2024.
No victory without homework
A credible position also acknowledges what is not working yet. Some of the packaging accepted in the PMD bag is not yet recycled, or not sufficiently, in practice, which risks undermining consumer trust in the sorting message. For polystyrene (PS, XPS, EPS), Belgium currently reaches 32% recycling, well below the 55% threshold for recycling at scale that the PPWR sets for 2035. Increasing recycled content in household packaging also remains a challenge as long as it relies on voluntary action rather than dedicated fee differentiation.
These points do not weaken the argument. On the contrary, they confirm that a single-PRO model can adjust faster and more coherently than a fragmented market.
Belgium currently has the highest recycling rate in the entire EU-27. That is no coincidence, but the result of a system that can adjust four decisive levers centrally and quickly. A competitive model with several PROs could in theory reach the same level, but only with considerable additional investment (a central register, independent oversight, mandatory harmonisation) that is simply unnecessary in a single-PRO model. This is the first in a series of position statements in which Fost Plus is committing this year to a well-founded, transparent stance on the issues that matter most.
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