What do we see?
Over the years, energetic valorisation and landfilling have been used less, dropping to values of 4% and 3%, respectively, in 2020. During the reporting period, the combined percentage for recycling and reuse increased from 88% to 93%. More specifically, reuse has grown from 14% in 2011 to 21% in 2020 with a peak of 26% in 2019. These numbers show a rapid evolution towards more circular solutions.
What’s the aim?
In order to maintain the value of materials for as long as possible, a circular economy aims to maximise the value extraction from end-of-life vehicles. In this framework, reuse is the highest circular strategy as it allows us to keep materials and products in use without the need to further process or downcycle them. The rates for energetic valorisation and landfilling, on the other hand, should decrease. In Flanders, the overall rates for recycling, reuse and energetic valorisation overperform the recycling targets set by Europe: 95% must have a “useful application”. When talking about recycling, however, we should keep an eye on the recycling process and the quality of the product. Valorisation of waste streams should always take precedence over downcycling.
What does this indicator measure?
The data on downstream processing of cars was taken from the annual reports of Febelauto, the EPR organisation in Belgium. The data is only available for Belgium as a whole but can also be used for Flanders as there is no particular difference in recycling centres between regions.
