§ 1.
In order to stimulate the prevention, reuse, recycling and other waste recovery, the Government of Flanders may take measures to ensure that any natural or legal person who professionally develops, manufactures, treats, processes, sells or imports products (producer of the product) bears an extended producer responsibility obligation.
The measures mentioned in subparagraph 1 may consist of imposing rules and obligations on the natural and legal persons mentioned in subparagraph 1 and shall refer to:
|
1° |
Imposing partial or full responsibility for the organisation of the collection of the waste generated as a result of the products they have put on the market; |
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2° |
making the acceptance of this waste compulsory; |
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3° |
making the organisation partly or entirely responsible for the subsequent management of this waste; |
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4° |
assigning financial responsibility for the collection and treatment of this waste in accordance with Article 10; |
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5° |
providing publicly available information on environmentally sound product use and the extent to which and the way in which the product is reusable and recyclable. |
The measures mentioned in subparagraph 1 may also be measures to encourage product design which reduces the environmental impacts and the generation of waste both in the course of the production and during the subsequent use of the products, and to ensure that the recovery and disposal of products that have become waste take place in accordance with Article 4. Such measures may encourage, inter alia, the development, production and marketing of products that are suitable for repeated reuse, that are technically durable and that are, once they have become waste, suitable for proper and safe recycling, other types of recovery and environmentally compatible disposal.
§ 2.
The Government of Flanders shall indicate the products or waste to which some kind of extended producer responsibility obligation applies. In doing so, it shall take into account the technical and economic feasibility and the overall impacts on the environment, public health and society, respecting the need to ensure the proper functioning of the market.
§ 3.
The extended producer responsibility obligation shall be applied without prejudice to the responsibility for waste management as provided for in Article 12, paragraph 3 and without prejudice to the application of existing specific legislation on waste streams and products.
§ 4.
The natural or legal persons mentioned in paragraph 1, subparagraph 1, may, with a view to compliance with the obligations imposed on them by or by virtue of this Article, turn to third parties at their own expense, under the conditions determined by the Government of Flanders.
For the collection of household waste, cooperation with the municipalities, in addition to possible other collection channels, is mandatory. In this case, the Government of Flanders shall lay down more specific rules for determining a reasonable compensation to be paid to the municipalities by the natural or legal persons mentioned in paragraph 1 for the collection of household waste which ends up in the municipal collection channels.
The Government of Flanders may derogate from this obligation to cooperate if other collection channels are more efficient and effective. For waste for which cooperation with the municipalities is not mandatory, the municipalities are not obliged to accept the waste via the municipal collection channels and they therefore have no right to the reasonable compensation as mentioned in subparagraph 2.