Belgium: ecotax thrown out by Belgian Court

The Belgian government‘‘s plans to impose a tax on non-refillable containers have twice been ruled discriminatory and annulled by the Belgian Court of Arbitration. Europen reports that the Belgian government‘‘s response has been to introduce a revised tax, now also applicable on refillable beverage containers, which took effect on 10 April 2007.



This leaves the tax on non-refillable containers unchanged, in line with the Court‘‘s decision, but taxes refillable containers at 1/7 of the rate for non-refillables, on the assumption that refillables will be reused 7 times.



The revised tax rates as published in the Belgian gazette are:



EUR 9.86 per hectolitre for non-refillables

EUR 1.41/hl for refillables

Check Also

Waste management poses challenges, but could unlock major environmental and economic gains

Every day, the city of Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest metropolises in the Southern Hemisphere, generates 17,000 tonnes of waste, ranging from large industrial debris to candy wrappers bought innocently at newspaper stands. While this waste presents a serious and urgent environmental challenge, it also fuels an increasingly significant portion of the economy, with benefits extending beyond financial gains. - When we look at developed European countries, many are already recycling between 40% and 50%, with some reaching 60%. From an economic standpoint, both recyclable materials and organic waste hold tremendous value - stated Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary for Environment and Environmental Quality at the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), during the Methane Forum: Climate Emergency Brake, at the Rio Nature and Climate Week. Citing a 2025 report, Maluf mentioned that Brazil literally throws away R$27 billion annually, while municipalities spend significantly more - R$45 billion - managing all this waste, often overlooking the environmental impact or economic potential buried in landfills and dumps. - We spend R$45 billion to collect and dispose of waste in landfills, yet we manage to recycle less than a third of the potential. I believe it will be necessary to review contracts, create performance-based remuneration mechanisms, and pay for both effectively sorted materials and those diverted from landfills - he added. According to the IBGE, 60.5% of Brazilian municipalities adopt some form of selective waste collection, and several initiatives serve as examples of how to manage city waste. In his panel presentation, Bernardo Ornelas, Project Coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb), highlighted Ecoparque do Caju, a national benchmark in waste management and recycling. There, received materials are sorted and can be used for biogas production, organic compounds for urban gardens, or human consumption, in the case of still...