Waste management policy

Ovam establishes waste management objectives by means of waste projects. Local authorities, interurban communities, professional companies, firms etc. take initiatives to meet these targets locally. The Flemish government offers a wide range of instruments to guide and steer waste management : licenses, charges, acceptance obligations, convenants, grants, local controls, environmental policy agreements etc.

Prevention of waste is the main objective. Ovam develops and supports waste prevention initiatives. By way of awareness and incentive programmes for firms, recommendations to local authorities, convenants with specific target groups, legal obligations and exchange of experience programmes, consumers as well as manufacturers are made aware of the problem and obliged to prevent waste.

Unavoidable waste should be reused or recycled. Ovam promotes recuperation, re-use and recycling of waste.
Thanks to new techniques, more and more waste can be recycled. Re-use centres are a very important channel for immidiate re-use by the consumer.

Waste that cannot be recycled is usually burnt or landfilled. For a certain part of it, controlled burning offers a supplementary possibility to generate some useful energy. The Flemish government eagerly wants to discourage both burning and dumping.

In case the parties involved are unable or refuse to manage their waste, Ovam has the right to intervene in order to prevent worse. Its main objective is to restore, remediate and/or manage environmental damage.
A risk evaluation determines the type of intervention. After a last warning, Ovam officially removes the waste and takes it to licensed locations.