How to sort your waste?

In Ghent, the sturdy heroes of IVAGO take care of waste. There are five main categories of waste they collect, each in a different way and at a different time in Ghent, depending on where you live.

To know on which day IVAGO picks up the garbage in your street, you have two options:

• Fill in your address on this website: https://www.ivago.be/nl/particulier/afval/ophaling (page is in Dutch). You can download a personal calendar via “download kalender”.
• Recycle! app via the appstore.

Place your garbage on the street after 19:00 on the day before IVAGO picks it up or before 7:00 on the day of pick-up.

Organic waste (vegetable, fruit, green & food waste)

To make the streets even more colourful, you can also use designated green GFT containers. These are used for leftover vegetables, fruits and food, as well as waste from the garden and your dear dead houseplants that you forgot to water. These containers are emptied biweekly as well.

The green garbage bags for non-recyclable waste are costly, so separating your greens into the GFT container will be about 50% cheaper. It is an excellent investment that helps the environment and your wallet, so don’t hesitate to order one! With the GFT container, you can also get a free small basket and a roll of biodegradable plastic bags to control the leftovers in your kitchen and keep the container clean.

You can order the above described green containers online at ivago.be/nl/particulier/Dienst/containers#gentcont (NL)

Two golden tips

1. Put a newspaper at the bottom of the container
2. Clean your container from time to time.

PMD (plastic packaging, metal packaging & drink cartons)

It is required to separate plastic, metal packaging and drink cartons (TETRA) from the non-recyclable regular garbage. For this waste, you need to purchase the official (and cheap) blue IVAGO waste bags. You can do so at the supermarket (ask the cashier), the city shop and selected convenience stores. This waste fraction is picked up every two weeks.

Do’s

All plastic packaging. Metal cans, spraying cans which contained food (e.g. whipped cream) or cosmetics (e.g. deodorant, hairspray), aluminium dishes and trays, metal lids and caps. Drinking cartons of all sizes and shapes, yoghurt cups.

Don’ts

Bioplastics, plastic toys, foam, aluminium foil, packages which contained motor oil, poisonous or corrosive products.

Paper & cardboard

Paper and cardboard will be picked up monthly in a closed cardboard box. You are also allowed to tie everything together with a string. Please, don’t make the box too heavy and shelter it from the rain was much as possible. These boxes can get pretty heavy, especially if they get wet.

Do’s

Newspapers, magazines, letters and envelopes, old books, advertising leaflets, printing paper, folded boxes, paper and carton packaging, egg cartons, toilet rolls.

Don’ts

Dirty or greasy paper, paper towels, tissues, paper tablecloth, kitchen paper, stickers or self-adhesive paper, toilet paper, carbon paper, drinking cartons, wallpaper, plastic bags, styrofoam.

Tip: on ivago.be/nl/particulier/Dienst/sticker-geen-reclamedrukwerk you can fill in your name and address to receive a free sticker that says you don’t want to receive advertising folders and regional press in your mailbox.

Glass

Empty and mostly clean glass bottles, bowls and flasks are collected in a plastic bucket or solid plastic box provided by you. IVAGO picks up the glass once a month. Don’t use cardboard boxes as a container or you could be fined. For some glass bottles, a mandatory deposit-refund system applies. You pay a deposit of 10 cents for most beer bottles. An entire tray is worth €4,50. So get yourself an extra drink by bringing back the bottles to your supermarket or (night)shop.

Do’s

Transparent glass bottles, jars and flasks.

Don’ts

Lids, screwcaps, heat resistant glass, porcelain and pottery, stone bottles, windows, mirrors, lamps, medicine bottles, white glass.

Batteries

These don’t belong in any of the other bags or containers mentioned in this chapter. In Ghent you will find numerous collection points of Bebat, a company that recycles them. You will find a collection point in almost any supermarket. Student centre “the Therminal” and most student residencies also have one, easy peasy!

Non-recyclable garbage

All non-dangerous waste that does not belong in one of the before-mentioned categories is considered non-recyclable regular waste and belongs in the official green IVAGO bag. These bags can be bought in two sizes (30l or 60l) at the supermarket (ask the cashier), the city shop and selected convenience stores.

Tip: to encourage recycling, the city of Ghent has made the green bags for regular waste the most expensive ones. So, less regular waste and more recycling equals saving money.

Do’s

Not many things belong to the non-recyclable fraction anymore. General waste which can only be burned, such as dirty paper material from the fries shop, aluminium foil, pizza boxes, bioplastic, tea bags, coffee capsules.

Don’ts

Injection needles, paint, medication, lamps and anything recyclable.

When in doubt, check https://www.bettersorting.be/ or their free Recycle! app.