2020-03-11

BRUSSELS - Belgians are top in sorting out garbage. But what happens to the PET bottles we throw in the blue bag? Exactly how many PET bottles do we recycle? And does recycling really reduces fossil plastic production?

The questions turned out to be simpler than the answer: there are hardly any figures on pet recycling, and the official figures cannot be verified. In this three-part series, Isabelle Vanhoutte examines how pet recycling works in Belgium, what role Fost Plus plays in it and the risks associated with the fact that the plastics industry is very much at the heart of that recycling story.

 

This investigation has lead to a cross-border collaboration between Isabelle Vanhoutte and the German journalist Benedict Wermter, supported by Journalismfund.eu.

“Reading the Journalismfund’s newsletter last year I was surprised: A colleague / Isabelle Vanhoutte worked on the same story in another country – funded by Pascal Decroos Fund. So we teamed up and got granted by the Journalismfund. Thanks to the network this cross border investigation brought our stories next level.”   - Benedict Wermter 

More info.

 

Photo: © Brian Yurasits (Unsplash)

Team members

Isabelle Vanhoutte

Isabelle Vanhoutte (º1987) is a Belgian journalist.

Supported
€ 2.412 allocated on 12/08/2019.
ID
FPD/2019/1650
Tags

PRINT/ONLINE (in Dutch)

 

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