Legislation

Cooperation Agreement of 4 November 2008 on the Prevention and Management of Packaging Waste. 

Legislation on packaging waste, adopted in the form of a cooperation agreement between the three regions, provides the obligation to take back packaging waste for the whole of Belgium, and sets targets and obligations for the prevention, selective collection and recycling of household and industrial packaging waste. On this basis, two eco-organisations set up by producers, Fost-Plus and Valipac, have been approved to implement the operational measures needed to achieve these objectives. Issues such as circularity are integrated into the approval decisions of the Interregional Packaging Commission.

Decree of 9 March 2023 on waste, the circularity of materials and public cleanliness.

The Walloon decree of 9 March 2023 on waste, the circularity of materials and public cleanliness, which came into force in August 2023, marks a significant change compared with the 1996 decree that it replaces. 

The decree aims to strengthen waste prevention, recovery and traceability, taking into account the Lansink scale and the circular economy objectives in Wallonia. It fully or partially transposes several European directives. It also modernises the framework for the approval and registration of waste management operators. It paves the way for the introduction of the electronic waste portal, GE déchets.  The new text also provides a common basis for all waste streams subject to an extended product producer responsibility scheme. This decree will be implemented by orders of the Walloon Government; pending these orders, the existing orders will continue to apply.
To find out more, read the presentation given by SPW ARNE's Soil and Waste Department at the Colloquium on 23 September 2023 dedicated to this decree.

Decrees on the transition from waste status to recognition of by-products
The possibility of having a substance or object recognised as not being or no longer being waste is formally governed by two Walloon Government decrees adopted on 28 February 2019. These decrees set out the conditions and procedures to be followed specifically for materials and objects whose status has not been regulated at European level. 

By-product status refers to the substance or object resulting from a production process whose primary purpose is not to produce it (residue that does not pass through the waste stage), whereas removal from waste status applies to waste that has undergone a recycling or other recovery operation.

Find out more on the Department of Soil and Waste (SPW ARNE) website. 

Watch the presentations given as part of the webinar organised by SPW-ARNE's Soil and Waste Department on 18 October 2024 as part of the "Quinzaine de l'économie circulaire".

The Walloon Waste Plan takes stock of the existing situation, and sets strategic and operational guidelines to be translated into legislation and economic instruments. It is a mediate source of legality: unless one piece of legislation explicitly refers to it, it does not create any obligation for private players.

The third waste plan, called the "Walloon Waste-Resource Plan", abbreviated as PWD-R (Plan Wallon des Déchets-Ressources), was adopted by the Walloon Government on 22 March 2018. It is firmly focused on the circular economy, and many of its measures are in line with the circular economy package adopted by the European Commission.

The PWD-R is divided into six sections: 

• Section 1 sets out the overarching strategic framework, detailing cross-functional objectives.
• Section 2 constitutes the programme for the prevention and re-use of waste. It covers both industrial waste and household waste.
• Section 3 pertains to the management of household waste.
• Section 4 concerns the management of industrial waste.
• Section 5 constitutes the plan for public cleanliness and the fight against litter and illegal dumping.
• Section 6 deals with the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the aforementioned provisions of the plan.

More than three-quarters of the actions relate to six waste streams: 

• biodegradable organic waste;
• packaging waste, particularly plastic packaging;
• hazardous waste (batteries and accumulators, pesticides, asbestos, etc.);
• waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE);
• paper and cardboard;
• construction and demolition waste.

In line with the circular economy theme, the PWD-R includes targets for eco-design, repair and re-use, the economy of functionality, increased sorting and selective collection of waste, and recycling. Instruments range from measures to raise awareness to regulation, via sectoral agreements - with the retail sector, for example - the promotion of public-private partnerships, the development of a materials exchange, support for synergies between companies and new channels for post-consumer materials, and the exemplary role of public authorities. Find out more.

Excess soil from construction sites, also considered as waste, and soil from plant production, generated from the cleaning of field vegetables, are governed by new traceability and quality control rules. The system introduced by the Walloon Government's decree of 5 July 2018 on the management and traceability of excavated soil aims to improve compatibility between land use and soil conditions, and offers tools for recycling polluted land, as well as soil from excavation work, thereby promoting the circularity of soil and the legal certainty of excavation/backfill operations in the context of construction sites.