According to the new European calculation method, 78% of plastic drinks bottles were collected for recycling in 2022. Initial calculations for 2023 suggest a figure of around 80%. This would mean that Belgium already meets – and exceeds – the target for 2025 set by the European Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD).
Towards a level European playing field
The SUPD states that European member states should achieve a 77% collection rate for single-use plastic drinks bottles by 2025. By 2029, that figure should reach 90%. Europe has therefore imposed a specific method for calculating the collection rate in order to assess the different member states correctly against the target. This calculation method is now mandatory, starting with European reporting this year (2024) of results for 2022.
Belgium has set additional targets in the Interregional Cooperation Agreement, with a specific calculation method approved by the Interregional Packaging Commission (IVCIE). This applies to the figures for plastic drinks bottles (and more specifically PET drinks bottles) reported so far. Starting this year, Fost Plus will therefore report according to two different calculation methods, in line with Belgian and European legislation.
How is the collection rate calculated for Europe?
The SUPD applies to all separately collected plastic drinks bottles of less than 3 litres. In Belgium, this means drinks bottles collected in the blue bag. Corrections are applied to this figure for any product residue left behind in the bottles. The measured weight is compared to the share of bottles (by weight) placed on the market by the members of Fost Plus and corrected for cross-border purchases and bottles placed on the market by so-called freeriders (companies that aren’t members of Fost Plus and don’t pay the cost of recycling their packaging).
The figures for 2023 are still undergoing checks by the IVCIE.
Closing the loop for drinks packaging
Drinks bottles must comply with strict collection and recycling rules if they are to be recycled as drinks bottles. At present, this is only the case for PET bottles. In the Belgian sorting centres, PET packaging is sorted separately: transparent clear bottles, transparent blue bottles, transparent coloured bottles, opaque bottles and PET trays form five separate streams from the blue bag. For them to be processed into food-grade granules (r-PET), the recycler must ensure that the incoming PET bales contain no more than 5% non-food packaging on average. In 2023, more than 90% of transparent clear and transparent blue PET bottles from Belgian sorting centres and the blue bags were given a new lease of life as drinks bottles.
Heldere en blauwe PET-flessen worden in Charleroi door FILAO gerecycleerd. Gekleurde en opake PET-flessen en PET-schaaltjes worden vanaf 2025 in Neufchâteau door MOPET Belgium gerecycleerd. Beide recycleurs zorgen er ook voor dat de granulaten (r-PET) maximaal opnieuw naar de Belgische markt gaan, zodat de nieuwe flesjes en schaaltjes opnieuw in de Belgische winkelrekken terechtkomen. Van de blauwe zak terug naar het schap dus!
Clear and blue PET bottles are recycled by FILAO in Charleroi. Coloured and opaque PET bottles and PET trays will be recycled by MOPET Belgium in Neufchâteau from 2025. Both recyclers also ensure that the granules (r-PET) return to the Belgian market as much as possible, so that the new bottles and trays end up back on Belgian shop shelves. From the blue bag back to the shelf, in other words!