PMD , Recreation , Recycling , References
Welcome to the Puyenbroeck provincial estate - a green park with plenty to do for both young and old. Here you can enjoy yourself, play golf, go cycling, row, fish, camp and organise events etc.
Given that it covers an area of 450 hectares, receives 450,000 visitors per year and offers numerous activities, separating waste at source is a major challenge - a challenge that everyone takes on together and with great success!
Herman Brantegem, who is in charge of technical services, explains how the estate manages, year after year, to perfect separating waste at source. “Clear agreements and responsibilities are an important pillar of good organisation. For example, one person is responsible for collecting waste and centralising it in our own recycling zone. Another person is responsible for managing the bins and coordinating with Vanheede. It goes without saying that we always have someone else ready as back-up. When you make people responsible, they place more importance on sorting waste at source. Everyone does their best."
“Collecting and treating waste represents the end point of course, but it is preceded by a global approach covering organisation, raising awareness and sign-posting. We use a great many waste collection points to collect the most common waste streams per site. In the playground area we place bins for residual waste and for paper/cardboard and PMD. At the camp site we have added oil/fat bins and glass bins as well as bins for other waste streams at the workshop where the little trains are maintained. We have seen that visitors are very willing to recycle thanks to efforts by the East Flanders Province to raise awareness and numerous public campaigns.”
“Although recycling PMD waste has only been compulsory since 2013, we have been doing it for more than a decade. Every year we see an increase in the volume of PMD waste and a decrease in the volume of residual waste. It is remarkable when we note that this result has not been obtained merely by putting out more bins; in fact we now have a third fewer residual waste bins than before. But each one is accompanied by a PMD bin. This choice has resulted in better waste separation at source and PMD waste that is 95% pure.”
