From 1 January 2024, in Flanders food waste will have to be thrown away with other vegetable, fruit and garden waste. Alternatively, this waste may be composted. Today, every year, 224,027 tonnes of edible food are thrown away in Flanders. Most of that food goes straight into general waste. This means it is being wasted, while it could otherwise be used to make compost or biogas.
According to figures from the Flemish Public Waste Agency OVAM Flemish households throw away 224,027 tonnes of edible food every year. That works out at around 34 kg per Fleming
The lion's share of the food waste ends up in the residual waste bag and is incinerated, whereas, according to OVAM, it could be put to good use by throwing the food waste away with other vegetable, fruit and garden waste. After all, this forms the basis for compost.
This problem should be greatly reduced next year, as sorting will become mandatory from 1 January 2024.
"When we convert food loss costs into cash, we see that each family is throwing away some 369 euros worth of food a year: that’s the equivalent of two to three full shopping carts," says OVAM spokesmanJan Verheyen. "This contrasts with the assertion that more than 60 per cent of Flemish people say they have difficulty throwing away food."
Today most discarded food is not properly treated. Most of it - about 26 kg per inhabitant - ends up in the residual waste bag. Only 11.7 per cent ends up in the vegetable, fruit and garden waste bag and 10 per cent gets thrown onto the compost heap.