Our ambition is to recycle PMD from both household and out-of-home waste, so the workplace is a major source. By making companies aware of their role in waste sorting, we limit the impact of packaging waste on the environment and move a step closer to our goal of doubling out-of-home PMD collection between 2018 and 2023.
Where do we stand at the moment?
In 2022, we achieved our interim goal of 24,000 tonnes of PMD collected out of home. A very promising result with a view to reaching our end goal of 26,000 tonnes by the end of 2023.
One of the reasons why we are collecting more and more PMD out of home is because of the inspections by enforcement agents in companies. Fost Plus and OVAM have given two people the task of checking whether companies comply with source sorting. Since this enforcement learning process began at the end of 2021, more than 1,200 inspections have been carried out. Clear recommendations are often made to improve sorting or an official report is drawn up.
Welcome bonuses
Despite the sorting obligations, there are still companies that do not sort their PMD. To encourage them to do so, Fost Plus and Valipac have set up a system of welcome bonuses. Every company that begins the selective collection of PMD via an affiliated waste operator can receive a bonus. In 2022, 2,050 companies that concluded a PMD agreement with a waste collector for the first time were eligible for this bonus. Since the welcome bonus was introduced in 2019, we have recorded 6,700 starters. These welcome bonuses are still valid.
Aiming for better quality
One of the components of our ‘quality’ action plan is a quality procedure in the transfer stations which check, among other things, that there are no major visible errors in the PMD, such as large industrial films, packaging of more than 8 litres, large items, etc. The transfer station has various options, depending how serious the error is: to accept, correct or reject the PMD. Thanks to this procedure, we avoid serious sorting errors reaching the sorting centres. In addition, this procedure increases awareness among collectors and their end customers.
In October, as well as a recruiting campaign for companies that do not sort, we also carried out a campaign in the form of a TED talk on quality for companies that do sort PMD. Watch the TED talk here:
