The 2017 edition of the Fost Plus Academic Session in May was a great success. The Organization presented its impressive results in packaging waste recycling – 87.4% and recovery – 90.1%, achieved in 2016, which reinforce its position of European leader.
This event was also an opportunity for Fost Plus to provide exhaustive information and take stock of two major projects: “P +” and public cleanliness. To this end, Belgian and foreign representatives from the public, political, operational and corporate sectors were able to present their views through two separate round tables. The main conclusion from the first round table was that close collaboration between producers and recyclers is necessary if we want to recycle more packaging. The problem of litter is a behavioral problem, the changing of which takes time. To this end, two operational teams, Mooimakers in Flanders (www.mooimakers.be) and Wallonie Plus Propre in Wallonia (www.walloniepluspropre.be), mobilize all parties and carry out targeted actions to fight with littering.
Mooimakers – act as if you were at home, don’t litter.
Mooimakers (= the public-private initiative for the fight against litter in Flanders, financed and piloted by Belgian packaging industry through Fost Plus), wants to free Flanders from litter. To achieve this, we don’t ask much: just throwing your litter into the waste bin is enough. Just like you do at home actually, because you don’t litter at home, do you? This is the message we want to spread with our new campaign, which started on the 5th of June. The coming weeks we will be on the radio, on social media, on local events, expressways and so on. We try to be everywhere where it matters (so mostly the places out-of-home where littering is a big problem). To stimulate the engagement of the citizens, we also organize a competition for everyone who uses our posters (asking their neighbors or visitors to ‘act as if you were at home, don’t litter’) and they can win a window-cleaner for a whole year! Who wouldn’t like that?! Curious about our campaign: we invite you to visit the website or the Facebook-page.
And me, what can I do?
The Walloon environmental protection organisation Wallonie Plus Propre launched a regional awareness campaign in June, aimed at raising public awareness by showing the reality of daily life. An upsetting reality that should prompt people to change their behaviour in terms of public cleanliness.
The campaign includes a radio commercial, a television commercial, an Internet advert and a poster on TEC public transport buses.
Everyone is invited to visit the website to find examples of practical actions and behaviour that can be used in daily life. These examples are intended not only for the citizens in general, but also especially for schools, local administrations and businesses.
The campaign will continue during summer at festivals where Wallonie Plus Propre will fight against cigarette stubs littering. In September, the tone of the campaign will change slightly, aiming to recruit cleanliness ambassadors.