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

54.0 Waste Levies and Bans (Belgium-Flanders
Case Study)
54.1 Outline of Policy
In Flanders two central policies can be defined to discourage disposal.
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� Levies on incineration and on landfill give financial incentives to avoid final
disposal; and
� Direct landfill and incineration bans exclude final disposal for a range of waste
types.
Both policies have the same final objective. By avoiding disposal waste has either to
be recycled or its production has to be prevented (direct prevention). The measure
indirectly promotes social prevention as well, if the waste which cannot be landfilled
or incinerated has to be fit for recycling.
54.2 Reasons for Implementation
The VLAREA, the Flemish law on waste management, excludes three waste treatment
applications, i.e. D2 (Land treatment like biodegradation of liquid or sludgy discards
in soils, etc.), D3 (Deep injection such as injection of pumpable discards into wells,
salt domes or naturally occurring repositories, etc.) and D11 (Incineration at sea,
which is in any case already prohibited by EU legislation and international
conventions).
In addition, for certain waste streams, landfill is forbidden, because of the nature of
the wastes, or because the possibility clearly exists to treat it through a means higher
in the waste hierarchy. For some waste streams, both landfill and incineration are
forbidden, which means that at least one preparatory sorting activity has to be
applied to it.
Over and above this, landfills and incineration plants have acceptance criteria
included in their permits to operate.
Landfill and incineration levies are imposed on a wide variety of waste streams and
disposal operations. Some of the levies have been increasing over the years, but all of
them are automatically linked to an index of consumption prices (otherwise known as
the Retail Price Index or RPI).
54.2.1 Landfill and Incineration bans
Landfill is forbidden for:
� Unsorted household waste;
� Waste collected for the purpose of recovery;
� Waste that is, due to its nature, quantity and homogeneity, fit for recycling;
� Incinerable sorting residues from household and comparable waste; and
29/09/09