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Brussels drafts action plan to make the city cleaner

16:32 21/06/2022

A new action plan is being formulated to tackle litter in the Belgium capital, according to Brussels’ minister of public cleanliness Alain Maron (Ecolo). 

Entitled Clean.Brussels, the initiative aims to foster greater communication and coordination between various city actors – from residents and municipalities to tourists and businesses – in order to reduce litter on Brussels streets.

“Everyone wants a city without abandoned packaging, cigarette butts, chewing gum and dog faeces on the pavement, without overturned bins and garbage,” reads a press release. “But the cleanest city is not the city that gets cleaned the most. It is the city that gets dirtied the least.”

With that in mind, the action plan intends to prevent litter through a number of different means, including the installation of new bins and ashtrays, promotion of reusable alternatives, increasing the number of local and mobile collection points for garbage and raising awareness about the issue.

The city also intends to improve the complaint management system used for reporting litter, introduce immediate collection of fines and reinforce the use of cameras. 

“Cleanliness is a common good, an essential element in our quality of life in the city,” Maron said. 

“Cleanliness officers work daily in the public interest and make an important contribution to protecting our environment, but their work must be supported by a collective action to make Brussels a cleaner region, more pleasant to live in for its inhabitants and more attractive for its visitors.”

A budget of €2.5 million is being made available to finance projects that improve cleanliness in Brussels neighbourhoods and the region is also introducing a new method of structural cooperation “to enable public actors to work together more effectively”.

Having been formulated over the course of more than a year, the Clean.Brussels plan is now awaiting feedback from municipalities and stakeholders. A final version of the plan is expected to be implemented from November 2022. 

Photo: © Brussels-City Facebook page

 

Written by Helen Lyons

Comments

pratap05@gmail.com

“But the cleanest city is not the city that gets cleaned the most. It is the city that gets dirtied the least.” .
They should be caught and punished to retrieve all the 2.5 M euros being spent on these initiatives. Its a pain to pay so much taxes are being paid from salaries to see the dirty streets!

Jun 22, 2022 22:55
John P

Poor sleigh of hand!
Do not clean-up, do not educate people, just install a few cheap ashtrays and then spend loads of money on how to make it easy to turn on each other by snitching and how to be forced to be obedient through camera surveillance! That's all this initiative is about and the worst aspect of it is that once it starts, the red line will never be drawn.
By the time we wake-up we'll already be slaves.

Jun 26, 2022 20:38