International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

used to reimburse (inter)municipalities for their waste paper collection through CA
sites and door-to-door collection.
The MBO for the periodical press was signed by BVDU (Belgian association of
publishers), NFIW (national association of informative magazines), UUPP
(International federation of periodical press) and VUKPP (federation of catholic
periodical press). The members of these federations do not have to pay a contribution
for the paper they put on the market, but they have to reserve a certain amount of
advertisement space for the Flemish government. The aim is that the space has a
total value of more than €3 million per year. By way of example, the members of NFIW
have to reserve 4 pages or 8 half pages for the Flemish government. The government
uses this space mainly for advertisements on prevention or recycling, and consider
this as a payment ‘in kind’. There is a discussion on the environmental effect of this
measure and the stimulus it creates, or does not create, for DFE and waste
prevention.
15.3.3 Waste Batteries
In 1993, a federal Belgian tax on batteries was agreed by the Belgian Government as
part of their ecotax legislation. Before this was implemented, a voluntary agreement
with the industry resulted in the ecotax law for batteries: batteries were to be
exempted from the ecotax when a voluntary collection and recycling scheme was
established. In response, the battery industry set up the non-profit organisation
BEBAT to co-ordinate the collection and recycling of batteries, and to ensure that the
target percentages were reached (collection target: 65% in 2004). The financing of
the 'collection and recycling contribution' is paid by members of the organisation (i.e.
battery producers and distributors). This contribution is passed on to the consumers
through a price increase. (€0.1239 per battery - for the connection with the Belgian
ecotax, please see Section 30.5.2.2 of the Annexes).
In 1997, a take-back obligation for waste batteries was implemented. The collection
percentage was increased to 75%; the recycling target was set to 65%.
BEBAT places collection boxes at more than 20,000 collection points (hyper- and
supermarkets and local shops, jewellers, photo shops, do-it-yourself stores, toy
stores, electrical stores, pharmacies, etc., as well as schools, public and private
institutions, and the CA sites) at no cost for the owners of the collection points.
Batteries are sorted by type: button cells; rechargeable batteries with nickelcadmium;
rechargeable batteries with nickel-metalhydride; rechargeable batteries
with lithium-ion; lead batteries; other types, especially alkaline and zinc-carbon
batteries (being the most common).
The batteries collected by BEBAT must be recycled according to the agreements
signed with the three regions. For monitoring purposes, BEBAT is required to provide
information to the ecotax commission, the regional governments (e.g. OVAM) and the
federal government at fixed intervals. All producers of batteries in Flanders have
joined BEBAT (www.bebat.be -English version available).
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International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes