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Type what you’re throwing out — it tells you which bag or cart it goes in.
(2 months ago)
Leuven sorts household waste into several streams, and most of the rules — the blauwe zak, the glasbol, the sorteerstraat hours — are written only in Dutch. Type what you're throwing out to see which bag or container it belongs in. Your collection days depend on your address: look them up in the free Recycle! app.
The streams
Restafval — brown paid bag
What's left once everything else is sorted out. In the official brown bag (60 L or 30 L), out before 07:00 on your day.
GFT — green bag or wheelie bin
Vegetable, fruit and garden waste. City centre: green bag; sub-municipalities: the GFT bin with its yearly sticker.
PMD — blue bag (blauwe zak)
Plastic packaging, metal tins and drink cartons. Emptied, caps left on, not nested or knotted together.
Papier & karton
Clean, dry paper and cardboard — in a closed cardboard box or tied with natural twine.
Glass — bottle bank (glasbol)
Bottles, jars and flacons, into a neighbourhood glasbol — never the blue bag. Their caps and lids go in PMD.
Recyclagepark (recycling park)
Things that don't go to the kerb: cooking oil, batteries, ceramics, drinking and oven glass, wood, rubble, bulky items. Access with your eID.
The full list, bin by bin
Restafval — brown paid bag
Broken drinking glass — Wrap it well so nobody is cut. Drinking glass is not bottle glass — it never goes in the glasbol.
Pizza box, greasy or food-soiled — Soiled cardboard can't be recycled — it goes in the restafval.
Aluminium foil — Foil does not go in PMD.
Styrofoam — Small pieces in restafval; large amounts to the recyclagepark.
GFT — green bag or wheelie bin
Vegetable and fruit peelings
Coffee grounds
Paper coffee filter — Filter and grounds together go in the GFT.
Garden and plant waste
PMD — blue bag (blauwe zak)
Drink cartons (milk, juice)
Yoghurt pots — Emptied — no need to rinse for PMD.
Plastic film and wrap — The new blue bag now accepts plastic films.
Metal cans and tins
Your collection days depend on your address
Leuven's kerbside days are set by zone (Leuven Centrum, Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, Wilsele/Wijgmaal). Enter your address in the free Recycle! app (recycleapp.be) for your exact days and a reminder — there is no single citywide schedule.
Bags out before 07:00
Put your bags at the kerb the morning of collection, before 07:00 — not the night before, which draws animals and fines.
Sorteerstraten: only between 07:00 and 22:00
In the dense city centre, four fractions (restafval, GFT, PMD, papier/karton) go into shared underground containers opened with your access card. Use them only between 07:00 and 22:00 so you don't disturb the neighbours at night.
The blue bag: empty, caps on, loose
Empty each pack well and leave the cap or lid on. Don't push one package inside another and don't knot several together — sorters need to see them one by one.
Not the curb — these go to a depot
The three recycling parks (recyclageparken)
Kessel-Lo — Diestsesteenweg 504, 3010 · Wilsele — Aarschotsesteenweg 212, 3012 · Heverlee — Grauwmeer 19, 3001. Open Tue–Fri 12:30–19:30 and Sat 09:00–16:00; closed Sunday, Monday and public holidays. Since 2022 you enter with your Belgian eID (your number plate is read automatically); ask the city for a temporary card if you have no eID. Restafval bags and GFT are not accepted here — those stay kerbside.
What's free and what's charged
Paper and cardboard, glass, PMD, metal, batteries and small chemical waste (KGA), and garden waste within limits are generally free. Construction rubble, wood, roofing and mixed bulky loads are weighed and charged. The full list is in Ecowerf's Reglement recyclagepark — check it before a big load.
The last word
Ecowerf runs sorting and the recycling parks for Leuven, and Stad Leuven collects at the kerb. Rules do change — this page and the Recycle! app are the last word.