{"id":371,"date":"2018-10-25T09:04:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T07:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/\/het-samenwerkingsakkoord\/"},"modified":"2023-09-26T10:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T08:45:46","slug":"the-cooperation-agreement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/the-cooperation-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"The cooperation agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Below you can find out what the Cooperation Agreement entails, how it came about and what its impact is on businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What does the Cooperation Agreement entail?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Cooperation Agreement is a legal framework for the prevention and management of all types of packaging waste in Belgium, whether industrial\/commercial or household.<\/p>\n<p>The Cooperation Agreement sets out three statutory obligations for <strong>companies<\/strong> placing products on the Belgian market: the <strong>reporting obligation<\/strong>, the <strong>take-back (i.e. recycling and recovery) obligation<\/strong> and the submission of a <strong>prevention plan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the Cooperation Agreement outlines a legal framework for <strong>accredited compliance organisations<\/strong>, which are responsible for the selective collection of packaging waste arising from businesses and households.<\/p>\n<p>The Cooperation Agreement also contains important <strong>legal definitions<\/strong> of packaging and related aspects, as well as regulations on <strong>sanctions and checks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Cooperation-agreement-of-04-11-2008-on-the-prevention-and-management-of-packaging-waste.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for the full Cooperation Agreement of 4 November 2008.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How did the Cooperation Agreement come about?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On 20 December 1994 the European Parliament published <strong>Directive 94\/62\/EC<\/strong>, which set out the obligation for <strong>all Member States<\/strong> of the European Union to provide a legal framework to <strong>harmonise the management and prevention of packaging waste within Europe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In <strong>Belgium<\/strong>, this <strong>legal framework<\/strong> is provided by the <strong>Cooperation Agreement<\/strong>, a piece of legislation stipulating how Belgium will meet the objectives.<\/p>\n<p>The Flemish Region, the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region have jointly signed the Cooperation Agreement on the prevention and management of packaging waste.<\/p>\n<p>The Cooperation Agreement is a <strong>legal document<\/strong> that applies to the whole of Belgium. The creation of the IRPC is laid down in the Cooperation Agreement.<\/p>\n<p>The IRPC is responsible for ensuring proper compliance with the Cooperation Agreement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What is the impact on businesses?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to the Cooperation Agreement, as a company you are responsible for the packaging waste arising from the products you place on the Belgian market:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you package products yourself or have them packaged before placing them on the Belgian market?<\/li>\n<li>Do you import packaged products to place them on the Belgian market?<\/li>\n<li>Or do you import products and unpack them in your company?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If so, you have <strong>three<\/strong> <strong>statutory obligations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1. <strong>Take-back obligation<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who does it apply to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Companies that place more than 300 kg of packaging on the Belgian market per year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does it entail?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You must be able to demonstrate annually that at least 80% of the packaging in question is recycled and that 85% recovery is achieved (recycling + energy recovery).<\/p>\n<p><strong>How can this obligation be met?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You have two options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You can join an accredited compliance organisation, which takes care of the formalities for you.<\/li>\n<li>You can report to the IRPC yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/obligations\/take-back-obligation\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-4762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/button_IVC-TAKE-BACK-OBLIGATION.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"152\" height=\"67\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2. <strong>Reporting obligation<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who does it apply to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Any company placing packaged products on the Belgian market.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does it entail?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You must report annually to the Interregional Packaging Commission on the quantity, type and recycling rate of any packaging your company places on the Belgian market.<\/p>\n<p>In short, you must demonstrate that you meet the legally mandated targets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How can this obligation be met?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You have two options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You can join an accredited compliance organisation, which takes care of the formalities for you.<\/li>\n<li>You can report to the IRPC yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/obligations\/reporting-obligation\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-4758\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/button_IVC-REPORTING-OBLIGATION.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"66\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">3. <strong>Submission of a prevention plan<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Who does it apply to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Companies that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>place at least 300 tonnes of one-way packaging on the Belgian market<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>or<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>package goods in Belgium (or have them packaged) using a minimum of 100 tonnes of one-way packaging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What does it entail?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The aim of the prevention plan is to make companies think systematically about how to prevent and reduce packaging waste. The plan must be submitted every three years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How can this obligation be met?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You have two options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You can report to the IRPC yourself.<\/li>\n<li>You can ask your trade association whether it can take care of it for you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/obligations\/prevention-plan\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-4754\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/button_IVC-PREVENTION-PLANS.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"66\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Below you can find out what the Cooperation Agreement entails, how it came about and what its impact is on businesses. &nbsp; What does the Cooperation Agreement entail? &nbsp; The Cooperation Agreement is a legal framework for the prevention and management of all types of packaging waste in Belgium, whether industrial\/commercial or household. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4716,"parent":0,"menu_order":95,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_text.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-371","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4777,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/371\/revisions\/4777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivcie.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}