What do we see?
The figures also indicate that in 2013 the volume of the different elements of sorted waste for collection increased compared to 2006. The amount of PMD drink cartons grew by 128%, from 0.67kg/person in 2006 to 1.53kg/person in 2013. This increase is most evident in the relative figures. In absolute figures, the growth is less pronounced (+0.86kg/person) as we are talking about a lightweight fraction here. The share of PMD plastic bottles increased by 94%, from 1.58kg/person to 3.07kg/person and the proportion of paper and cardboard increased by 3%. Textile waste also saw an increase of 79% from 4.4kg/person to 7.8kg/person. It is worth noting that, in absolute terms, textile waste grew the most. The reason for this is that this type of waste is heavier.
On the other hand, there are other categories of waste that have experienced a reduction in size, an evolution that is most noticeable in PMD metal packaging. At 45%, this had the biggest relative decrease, from 1.85kg/person in 2006 to 1.02kg/person in 2013. The amount of glass waste has also decreased (-28%), as has the amount of mixed plastics (-24%).
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 evolution of the composition of household residual waste in Flanders. The data was provided by OVAM.
