Fost Plus always collects packaging data with a specific goal. This means that the increasingly technical nature of the detailed declaration goes hand in hand with a growing importance of data quality. However, we are not abandoning our members to their own devices. So, starting this calendar year we are offering extra support (a) through in-depth insight, via a personalised dashboard, into the declarations submitted, (b) by entrusting an external partner with setting up a paid packaging sheet service.
In-depth insight into your 2022 declaration via My Sanity Check
Four eyes see more than two. With the common interest of all parties involved in mind, Fost Plus shares a number of sanity checks with its members.
- Changes in weight, number and contributions – by product family, by declaration type or by material
- Changes in recyclability or recycled content
- Detecting anomalies in the packaging data via outlier detection or unexpected combinations
Available via the Home screen in MyFost or under the heading ‘reports’. Have you found an error? No worries! You have until 30/06 to make any corrections. Of course: the sooner, the better.
Lab analyses as a new service for members
Are you having difficulties in drawing up a correct packaging sheet? Fost Plus can help you to determine the composition of your packaging. For a modest fee, our partner lab analyses your packaging fully in line with the procedures for the declaration. How does it work? After signing the agreement:
- You send (empty or not) packaging to the address indicated. That can be done easily by courier.
- Your packaging is analysed by a specialist and specially trained lab. The packaging is emptied, the various parts are separated and – if necessary – washed and dried. The lab analyses not only the materials used but also determines for each packaging component the weight of the different materials.
- You will receive the results of the analysis in the form of an Excel file that is compatible with MyFost. You will receive the results the next month.
- Once you, as the person responsible for packaging, have consulted the data, you can import them from the Excel file into MyFost. This way, you immediately have a detailed packaging sheet that you can use in your declaration. And that’s it!
Fost Plus aims to incorporate this process fully within MyFost.
For more information, contact members@fostplus.be.
Why is a correct declaration so important?
The Green Dot rates for each material reflect the real deficit in the chain, so that every person responsible for packaging provides an appropriate financial contribution to the Belgian system of collection, sorting and recycling. Not only must the rates accurately reflect reality, this is also true for the quantities per material that are reported each year. No one is permitted to contribute too little, and no one wants to contribute too much.
The legally defined purpose of recycling that underlies the obligation to recover packaging is the ratio, for each material, between the quantity recycled and the quantities brought to market. So you can only claim a credible result if the numerator and the denominator have been defined accurately.