Consumer goods in household residual waste – composition

This indicator gives an idea of the composition of residual waste put out for collection by Flemish families, and shows how the percentages of the different elements of residual waste have increased or decreased.

55% sorted collection

  • In 2013, 55% of household residual waste was sorted for collection, 45% of which through existing channels.
  • In addition, another 349kt of extra material could have been recovered for recycling if the waste had been sorted for collection.

What do we see?

In 2013, 45% of household residual waste was not sorted for collection, but the remaining 55% was. Of that 55%, around 45% was collected through existing channels. We are talking about organic waste (~15%), paper and cardboard (~10%), textiles (>5%) and other categories that are sorted for collection (~10%). The remaining 10% could be collected as mixed plastics in some parts of Flanders. 



What’s the aim?

In a circular economy, we need to use, reuse and recycle materials as much as possible to avoid serviceable materials being destroyed and in order to preserve the value of materials as long as possible. This means we need to avoid waste as much as possible, and reuse materials as best we can to avoid the loss of raw materials. Sorted collection of waste is a crucial step of recycling. It allows us to separate out the materials that can be recovered from the residual waste incinerated in Flanders. It is therefore important to promote sorted waste collection. 

What does this indicator measure?

This indicator provides more information about the composition of household residual waste in Flanders. The data was provided by OVAM.

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