Recently there has been a lot of talk about waste, about the plastic sea and the reduction of plastic. I would also like to contribute to this, but there is something I do not fully understand. Does the waste that we throw away here in Belgium end up in the sea? I’m talking about waste that we throw in the garbage bag (rest or pmd) and hand over with the garbage cart. Pmd is recycled I assume, and I thought the rest was incinerated, is that correct? Where does all that waste in the sea come from?
Answer
Dear Luna,
That’s a very good question. Most of our residual waste is incinerated. This means that the plastic, which makes up a large proportion of our residual waste, does not end up in the sea. A small part of our plastic waste can be recycled, such as the items that you can put in the PMD bag, and plastic films, isomo and other things that you can leave behind in the container park.
However, Belgium is an exception: compared to other countries we do a lot better in terms of sorting, and we are also one of the few countries that incinerates its residual waste instead of dumping it. Landfills still occur here and there in Belgium, but are disappearing. While in some other countries you know that the plastic waste that you throw in the garbage can in a landfill and that it may eventually end up in the sea, that is not the case with us.
Nevertheless, it remains useful to reduce the amount of plastic waste in Belgium as well. This is possible because of concerns about sustainability, CO2 emissions, and health. And also not to be overlooked: waste that is not processed via the ‘normal’ route, such as litter, eventually ends up in the sea.
Regards,
Francis
Answered by
dr. Francis Meerburg
Biology, Environmental technology, Microbial techniques, Water purification, Biomass
http://www.ugent.be
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