Fly-tippers travel from Flanders to illegally dump rubbish in Brussels

Almost one fifth (18%) of illegal waste dumped in Brussels is thought to be abandoned by non-Brussels residents, mainly from the Flemish periphery, according to the city's alderman for public cleanliness.

The City of Brussels sanctioned 4,802 illegal dumps last year, of which 1,520 were attributed to people residing outside the municipality. More than half (857) concerned residents of the outskirts of the Brussels region and even further afield.

The five main municipalities of residence of the illegal polluters are all located in Flemish Brabant: Grimbergen, Asse, Machelen, Wemmel and Vilvoorde.

The municipalities outside the Brussels region that make up the top 10 are also all located in Flanders, according to the office of alderman Anas Ben Abdelmoumen.

“Even people from Mechelen and Antwerp don't hesitate to travel dozens of kilometres to illegally dispose of their old sofas, furniture and other bulky waste in the Brussels area,” the office said.

Surveillance cameras and "meticulous" issuing of fines by the city's public cleanliness department make it possible to identify offenders.

Fines range from a few hundred euros to several thousand or even tens of thousands of euros depending on the volume of waste abandoned. In 2024, the amount of fines imposed by the municipality for illegal dumping amounted to almost €570,000.

“People often think: we can pollute in Brussels because we won't be punished, but Brussels is not a rubbish bin,” Ben Abdelmoumen said, promising a policy of "zero tolerance" and "increased surveillance", as the capital often suffers from an image of being a dirty city.

Ben Abdelmoumen said he sees the problem first-hand in his neighbourhood of Neder-over-Heembeek: “I see it regularly: people who quickly pull over and throw a few bin bags out of their car.”

Bart Laeremans, mayor of Grimbergen in Flanders where many of the violators come from, said his own municipality recently cracked down hard on illegal dumping.

“We now do this systematically and people then look for other places to dump their rubbish,” said Laeremans.

“It's a certain group of people who don't let anything bother them. They’re too lazy and don't want to spend money at the recycling centres. That’s why we must remain permanently vigilant, because one check is not enough.”

Grimbergen calls in the police and other authorities to ensure permanent vigilance and community guards also hand out fines: “For a first offence, the fine is €300 to €400, but then there are the cleaning costs, which quickly add up to €700 or €800. The fines are even higher for repeat offenders.”

In addition to enforcement, municipalities can also respond to cleanliness problems in other more targeted ways. For example, after a stretch of the road became a popular dump site for lorry drivers, lorry parking there was banned.

Brussels’ Ben Abdelmoumen acknowledged the complications Brussels faces due to its geographical size and location in relation to Belgium’s other two regions.

“Too often the problem of illegal dumping is reduced to a problem of the people of Brussels alone,” he said.

“That’s why I want to focus even more on raising awareness. We suspect that the actual number of non-Brussels illegal dumpers is even higher than we’ve been able to demonstrate so far.”

Ben Abdelmoumen wants to use smart cameras with more modern technology to combat the problem of illegal dumping.

The European AI Act, which came into force on 4 February, leaves the door open for real-time facial recognition by police and security services, though experts point out the dangers to privacy.