Littering and illegal dumping in Flanders
Throwing away a cigarette butt or leaving food waste in a park is less harmless than people sometimes think. The Flemish authorities still take action against littering and illegal dumping.
In this Wanted Fact, you will read about the difference between littering and illegal dumping. You will also learn which sanctions and indicative amounts are currently relevant in Flanders.
Littering
Littering is small waste that is left behind outdoors in places where it does not belong. Think of cigarette butts, chewing gum, cans, packaging or food remains. Littering is not necessarily always intentional. Even when someone leaves waste outdoors unintentionally, for example through forgetfulness, this can still amount to littering.
Illegal dumping
Illegal dumping, unlike littering, is always intentional. Illegal dumpers deliberately avoid the collection of their household or business waste. Illegal dumping occurs when waste is left behind in places or at times where this is not allowed, or when it is deposited in the wrong bins or containers.
How are litter and illegal dumping dealt with?
In many cases, a municipality includes the approach to littering or illegal dumping in its police regulations. Offences can then be sanctioned with a municipal administrative fine.
If a municipality has not provided for a municipal administrative fine route for a specific offence, enforcement may take place under Flemish environmental legislation and the rules on environmental enforcement.
Enforcement through municipal administrative fines
When a municipality includes littering or illegal dumping in its police regulations, it may act through a municipal administrative fine. In that case, the matter is handled administratively at local level.
Enforcement with the Materials Decree
In cases where a municipality’s administrative fines regulation does not cover littering and illegal dumping, enforcement may take place on the basis of the Materials Decree.
Article 12 of the Materials Decree provides:
‘It is prohibited to leave or manage waste in violation of
the requirements of this decree or its implementing decrees.’
The legal basis therefore remains current. Enforcement today takes place within the broader framework of environmental enforcement. In practice, reference is made in this respect to Title XVI of the DABM. Since 1 April 2026, the Flemish Enforcement Framework Decree has also provided a more uniform framework for environmental enforcement in Flanders.
Under these enforcement rules, both local and regional inspectors as well as the local police may take action against infringements.
Under this enforcement route, the competent inspector or the police draws up an official report or statement of findings. After that, depending on the applicable procedure, the case may be dealt with administratively or criminally.
An administrative fine
In certain cases, the competent fining authority may impose an administrative fine.
Because the ranges of fines in the legislation are broad, the competent authority has a wide margin of assessment. That is why a decision-making framework is used, so that comparable facts are in principle assessed in a comparable way. For exceptional cases or cases with specific elements, however, a tailored assessment remains possible.
1. The seriousness of the facts
In cases of littering and illegal dumping, the seriousness of the facts is assessed on the basis of the quantity and nature of the waste, as well as the location of the facts.
The following amounts are current examples of indicative amounts used today for non-hazardous waste:
For even larger quantities, the amount may increase further in proportion to the quantity of waste left behind.
The presence of hazardous waste, such as asbestos, waste electrical or electronic equipment, or waste oil, may also lead to a higher fine. The same applies where the facts take place in a sensitive location, for example in a nature area.
In addition, leaving waste behind in a professional context is, under the current decision-making framework, sanctioned with amounts that may rise to double the ordinary indicative amounts.
2. The circumstances in which the offender committed the acts
Three types of circumstances can be distinguished.
If the offender proceeds to remedy the situation, the possibility of being fined does not disappear, but this may count as a mitigating circumstance and lead to a lower fine.
Specific mitigating circumstances include cleaning up the waste or paying the clean-up costs, provided that evidence of this can be submitted.
- Aggravating circumstances
If the offender obstructs the authorities, deliberately tries to mislead them, or behaves aggressively towards inspectors, this may count as an aggravating circumstance and lead to a higher fine.
- Financial capacity of the offender
An administrative fine has a punitive character. Its aim is to deter the offender from committing similar infringements again. That is why the fine may also be aligned with the offender’s financial capacity.
Reasonable decision period
Administrative sanctioning still works with indicative decision periods. For environmental criminal offences, that period is 180 days, and for environmental infringements it is 90 days after the start of the procedure.
These are indicative time limits. Exceeding them does not automatically make the sanction invalid.
Where the handling of the case takes substantially longer, this may in certain situations still be taken into account when determining the final fine amount.
An administrative transaction?
In certain cases, the competent authority may also propose an administrative settlement. In that case, the offender receives a proposal to pay a sum of money, which in practice is often lower than the administrative fine that might otherwise be imposed.
Can clean-up costs also be recovered separately?
Yes. A municipality may recover the actual costs of removing and processing illegally dumped waste from the person who left the waste behind. This recovery of costs is separate from the sanction itself.
This means that a person may both receive a municipal administrative fine or another sanction and still be required to repay the clean-up costs.
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