Rewards work: how IOK Afvalbeheer got more than 14,000 families sorting their PMD perfectly
A fine for a badly sorted PMD bag rarely convinces anyone to do better next time. A chance to win an electric bike does. That was the premise behind the large-scale positive PMD campaign that IOK Afvalbeheer and Fost Plus ran in the Kempen region in May and June. The result: more than 14,000 families who voluntarily had their sorting checked — with, in the vast majority of cases, a flawless result. For other waste intercommunales, it's a concrete example of how to shift sorting behaviour without pointing a finger.
A prize pot instead of a compliance check
In a special PMD edition of the regional Schoonste Kempen magazine, IOK Afvalbeheer and Fost Plus repeated the sorting rules and gave tips for quick, correct sorting. Each magazine contained three stickers with a unique code. Anyone who stuck a sticker on their Blue Bag and registered at www.iok.be was in the running for a prize — provided the bag turned out to be perfectly sorted.
A waste steward from IOK Afvalbeheer then went out to check the registered bags. Only stickers from perfectly sorted bags were entered into the draw. The prize wasn't tied to participation alone, but to correct sorting itself.
More than 14,000 families and five electric bikes
Each family could take part up to three times during the campaign, each time with a different Blue Bag. In the end, more than 14,000 families across the Kempen region registered their unique code.
On 3 July, IOK Afvalbeheer's board of directors drew the winners from thousands of stickers taken from perfectly sorted bags: five top prizes in the form of an electric bike, along with 25 bike panniers, 150 sweaters and 500 pairs of socks. On 4 August, the top winners officially received their prizes.
“People in the Kempen region are sorting champions, and with this campaign we wanted to reward good sorters,” says Ward Kennes, chairman of IOK Afvalbeheer. “We're delighted with the high number of participants.”
Fost Plus is equally pleased. “Badly sorted PMD waste means we can recycle less effectively, and can even create dangerous situations,” says Valerie Bruyninckx, Manager Corporate Affairs & Reputation at Fost Plus. “This positive campaign from IOK Afvalbeheer gets citizens thinking differently about their sorting behaviour. That's how, together, we make a difference.”
What the checked bags tell us
Paul Vanthienen, waste steward at IOK Afvalbeheer, personally checked the participating bags. “It's great to see that the vast majority of the checked PMD bags were perfectly sorted,” he says. “Only around 10% still contained small sorting mistakes.”
Those mistakes were persistent but familiar: plastic items that aren't packaging (toys, buckets, flip-flops...), packaging that hasn't been emptied, and medicine blister packs, which only belong in the PMD bag if they're made of a single material [INTERNAL LINK: what does and doesn't belong in the PMD bag]. All examples of sorting mistakes that a positive message, it turns out, can actually fix.
In closing
IOK Afvalbeheer's positive PMD campaign shows that a reward-based model can achieve more than a punitive approach: over 14,000 families voluntarily had their sorting checked, with a high success rate as a result. For Fost Plus, it's an example of how local partners can structurally shift sorting behaviour — without asking citizens to give up any convenience.