According to the latest Eurostat figures, Belgium recycled 58.2% of its plastic packaging waste in 2024. This ranks it 2nd in the European Union and makes it one of only three countries already meeting the EU target set for 2030. But what exactly do these figures measure?
To read them correctly, three clarifications are needed:
- Eurostat measures all packaging placed on the Belgian market: household packaging, but also business packaging (industrial and commercial packaging), including reusable packaging and packaging from companies that are members of neither Fost Plus nor Valipac.
- The data are published around two years after the year concerned.
- Finally, these figures go through a validation process, first by EPRiBEL and then by Eurostat. At 58.2% in both 2023 and 2024, Belgium's performance is stable.
At 58.2%, Belgium is almost 16 percentage points above the EU average of 42.4%. Only Latvia (71%) and Poland (56%) also clear the 55% recycling bar that Europe requires by 2030.
What about household packaging?
Looking at household packaging alone, our own figures also show very good results: in 2025, the recycling rate for household plastic packaging reached 74% – a rate calculated against the quantities placed on the market by our members.
This result is above all a collective achievement. It rests first and foremost on the commitment of everyone who sorts their packaging every day: on average, each Belgian puts 26 kg of PMD a year in the blue PMD bag, which since 2021 has accepted almost all household plastic packaging, from yoghurt pots to films and bags.
This sorting effort then feeds an entire chain, which Fost Plus coordinates like the conductor of an orchestra: inter-municipal waste companies collect the bags, six Belgian sorting centres sort their contents into 16 different streams, and recyclers give the material a second life, increasingly often in Belgium itself.
This chain is funded by the companies that place packaging on the market. Their contribution is modulated: the harder a piece of packaging is to recycle, the more it costs. As a result, more than 99% of the household packaging placed on the market by our members is now recyclable.
Challenges for the years ahead
These figures are good news, and they are no coincidence. In Belgium, a single organisation manages household packaging (Fost Plus) and a single organisation manages industrial and commercial packaging (Valipac).
According to a recent study by EUROPEN, countries organised in this way achieve higher recycling rates on average. This model also makes it possible to tackle the remaining challenges faster and more consistently.
But we cannot rest on our laurels: Fost Plus has identified, among others, three priorities for the years ahead.
- Recycle everything that is sorted. Some packaging accepted in the blue PMD bag, such as multilayer pouches or certain black packaging, remains difficult to recycle. Yet when citizens sort correctly but their packaging is not recycled, their trust erodes. Hence the importance of designing packaging that fits existing recycling streams.
- Recycle all materials at scale. Polystyrene, used for example in some yoghurt pots or meat trays, has a recycling rate of only 32%. From 2035, Europe will require at least 55% for packaging to be considered recyclable. So we need to speed up, so that this material keeps its place on the market.
- Create an outlet for recycled material. Recycling is only the first step. The next is for recycled material to be used to make new packaging. Belgium already has the necessary recycling capacity. The challenge now is to encourage manufacturers to use more recycled plastic and close the loop.
Find all the 2025 figures for household packaging in our activity report.