Bruxelles-Propreté starts issuing fines over new waste collection rules

Anyone living in the Brussels-Capital Region who fails to put food waste into the orange bag or dumps their rubbish bag outside on the wrong day can now face fines ranging from €100 to €300, Brussels' waste management service Bruxelles-Propreté has announced.

The company warned that more widespread fines would follow from mid-October.

In other words, the four-month grace period from 15 May, when, under the new waste collection system, it became mandatory to put organic waste in the new orange bag and general waste (white) bag collections were collected once instead of twice a week in nearly all communes, is now over.

If you do not sort your waste properly – for example by throwing paper, plastic, beverage cartons and metal cans in the white bag – you will also risk a fine. People putting out a bag at the incorrect time and not sorting what is inside could pay as much as €600.

Most Brussels residents comply with the new rules. But there are still too many bags on the street outside the scheduled times. For example, in the first week of September alone, Bruxelles-Propreté teams collected some 38 tonnes of incorrectly placed bags.

To help reinforce the sorting message, Bruxelles-Propreté staff will meet representatives of the different communes this month. Following these preparatory meetings, a comprehensive evaluation of the new system is scheduled for mid-October.