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| |  inDUfed held its annual event & conference
After the previous digital annual meeting, inDUfed held its annual Event on October 28 at Quartier Papier in Zaventem.
After the welcoming drink, people were invited to listen to different speakers on the central topic “The economy and the people in the post-covid era”.
We would like to thank our speakers Philippe Ledent, Prof. Stijn Baert, Véronique Bundervoet, Kris De Groof and Joris Van Ongeval.
The evening was pleasantly closed with a networking walking dinner.
We hope to see you all again next year.
Stay Safe!
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| | inDUfed welcomes Thomas Pollet On 1st November Thomas Pollet joined the inDUfed team as Glass Specialist & Digitalisation Manager.
Thomas has worked for the Flemish Government and Parliament for the past 17 years.
He worked in 4 different cabinets and was spokesperson and deputy chief of cabinet for many years.
Thomas brings with him an extensive network and his expertise in communication and government relations.
At inDUfed, he succeeds Laura Bonnave, who we would like to thank once again for her commitment. |
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| | Visit of Minerale & Saverglass To improve the recycling of glass and specifically of flat glass, inDUfed together with Denuo organized a visit of Minerale glass recycling plant in Lodelinsart and the glass producer Saverglass in Ghlin. The exchanges between the different participants were fruitful and allowed a firsthand understanding of the flow of the glass recycling process. The participants gained a better view of the technologies necessary to produce a valuable raw material for the glass industry. The use of good quality cullets was explained during the Saverglass visit and why this is so important to obtain a product conforming with the market request. inDUfed would like to thank both Saverglass and Minerale for these excellent visits.
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| |  Glass and paper exchanges!
On Tuesday 9th November, Eric Raedts (site director of SAPPI Lanaken) visited the Knauf Insulation factory in Visé with Olivier Douxchamps (site manager of KI Visé and Chairman of the VGI/FIV and of inDUfed), along with Thomas Pollet (new Glass Specialist and Digitalization Manager at inDUfed) and Thomas Davreux (general manager at inDUfed).
This visit was the trigger for fruitful exchanges and the realization that, although making very different products, the two factories (Knauf Insulation and SAPPI Lanaken) were faced with amazingly similar issues, on social but also on sustainability and energy levels (to name but a few).
This led our two members to decide on a more extensive exchange of best practices, with management teams from both members soon to be sent for a similar visit at each plant.
This type of exchange is indeed what inDUfed is all about, and we were delighted that this visit went so well and seemed to bring up so many interesting conversations. We would encourage all our members to take some time to get to know their neighbors from other inDUfed sectors, and we would be delighted to help you get in touch with them if you so wish. Just send us an email or call us and we will look together at the most relevant company in your neighborhood. |
 | | | (fltr: Olivier Douxchamps, Thomas Davreux, Thomas Pollet, Eric Raedts) |
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| | Become a Certified Print Media Traineeship Company! Congratulations to Smart Packaging Solutions for achieving the quality label Certified Print Media Traineeship Company! The employee pictured below recently started working at Smart Packaging Solutions and was trained on-site by colleagues! You can recognise qualitative traineeship companies by the sectoral quality label issued by PaperPackSkills! |  | Become a certified traineeship company and apply here :  https://printmediastages.be/criteria-erkend-stagebedrijf/aanvraagformulier
For more information, please visit the website
 https://www.printmediastages.be/
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| | Clarification on the Flemish Training Incentives!
Clarification on the Flemish Training Incentives! The Flemish Government has developed an online guidebook describing the Flemish training incentives.
Based on a few targeted questions, this tool shows employers and employees the route to the training support measures for which their employees or themselves are eligible.
The training incentives offer support to employees who want to take a course from the training database :
https://www.vlaanderen.be/opleidingsdatabank
The Flemish training incentive guide can be found here :
https://www.vlaanderen.be/vlaamse-opleidingsincentives/wegwijzer-vlaamse-opleidingsincentives 
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| | Collective bargaining concluded
The autumn was dominated by sectoral collective bargaining. During the months of October and November, sector agreements were reached in the paper production sector, the paper and cardboard converting sector and the glass sector.
The limited margin for negotiation put a lot of pressure on the negotiations at both sector and company levels.
The trade unions are also increasing the pressure on the government to amend the Law of 1996, which forms the basis for determining the wage standard. Although the wage standard offers a limited margin for negotiation, rising inflation will burden Belgian companies with a significant increase in wage costs due to the automatic indexation that is the rule in Belgium.
From the employers’ side, the question of revising this automatic indexation system is also back on the agenda. |
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| | Webinars by inDUfed
In October, two seminars were planned on, respectively, alternative forms of remuneration and the presentation of the paper sector agreements. The interest and participation rate was very good. The French-speaking seminar on alternative forms of remuneration could not take place due to the cancellation of the speaker but will be organised again at a later date. In November, the sector agreement of the glass industry was also presented. |
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| | Turn the page: an attractive project
Turn the Page, a project led by Cepi, the European Paper Federation, aims to make the paper industry more attractive to young people. This week, a company visit was organised at Essity and a discussion was held with young people from a neighboring technical school. This meeting will now be followed by a stakeholders’ meeting with Forem, Education, Employers’ representatives in order to formulate some concrete proposals and questions for the Minister of Education.
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| | Elites du Travail / Elites van de Arbeid On Saturday 20 November, the ceremony of the ‘Elites du Travail- Elites van de Arbeid’ for the glass sector was held in the AGC offices of Louvain-la Neuve.
At this ceremony, we were able to thank and congratulate workers who are or have been fully committed to the sector and its development thanks to their skills and dedication.
The winners were awarded with the title of ‘Lauréat du Travail- Laureaat van de Arbeid’, along with a gold or silver medal. This year, Mrs. Brigitte Lacroix, Senior HR Lead at Foamglas (Owens Corning), was awarded with the distinction of ‘Doyen d’honneur-Eredeken’ in recognition of her 33-year career in the glass industry.
Once again, we would like to thank and congratulate Brigitte for her successful career in the field of Human Resources and for her fair and appreciated participation in social consultation in the sector. We also would like to thank AGC for hosting this event. | 
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| | Environmental taxes on waste: new tariff proposal for 2022 The Flemish Government tabled a new tariff proposal for environmental taxes on waste. The tariffs for Incineration and co-incineration of most industrial waste is increased from 13 €/ton to 25 €/ton. inDUfed proposed amendments to maintain the zero rates for recycling residues and deinking sludge. Furthermore inDufed is in favor of differentiating tax rates on the incineration of alternative fuel derived for non-recyclables. The ETS/non-ETS status of the installation using the waste-fuel is in our opinion an objective and enforceable criterion. |
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| | Fit for 55 During the summer, the European commission published the ‘Fit for 55’ package which consists of proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. With the assistance of our European associations but also national authorities, inDUfed started to dive in this document and identified the proposals that could impact our sectors. In a first step, our approach was presented during the inDUfed energy committees of October. |
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| | New climate and voluntary energy agreement
In both regions, the existing climate & energy agreements (EBO/ADB) must be reviewed. In Flanders, the authorities put a vision paper on the table which will now be discussed between and with the sectors. In the Walloon region, after a common position by all industrial sectors, the point by point discussions started with the administrations and the cabinets. The goal is to have an approval by the Walloon Government on the major issues by the end of this year and to develop the agreement in more detail in 2022. |
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| | Additional measures for the Flemish climate plan
The Flemish Government announced additional measures reinforcing the existing Flemish climate plan to align it with the new greenhouse gas abatement targets set at European level. For industry we note a new levy on gas, the accelerated phase out of subsidies to fossil fired CHP, more ambitious energy plans and carbon roadmaps.
The complete text can be read here |
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| | Single Use Plastics transposition
When the guidance on the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) was published by the European Commission in June of this year, many member states began the process of transposing the directive into national legislation. This proves to be a difficult task since the directive lacks clarity, and the guidance documents do not improve this much either.
In Belgium the transposition is further complicated by the different governmental levels involved and by the tendency to go beyond and above what is required by the directive. A first (real) version of the royal decree was sent to the State’s Council in September.
As the sector able to provide a real alternative to plastic products, we believe that the directive needs to be translated into national legislation as it is and not ban SUP’s over the board, while working on plastic consumption reduction. We also believe that a threshold level of polymers can provide the necessary room to innovate and reach the goals set by the SUPD. A full text of our position can be obtained upon simple demand. |
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| | Papier.be is the new name for Paper Chain Forum Dear reader, Paper and board are paradoxically performing well thanks to the digitalization of our society and a growing eco-awareness.
To highlight the added value of paper and board, the main actors of the Belgian paper chain, all present within Paper Chain Forum, have decided to communicate under the new name Papier.be as from 2021.
In the White paper you will get to know the unsurpassed impact and ease of use of paper and board.
But Papier.be also builds a bridge between digital and paper. The new website www.papier.be and an active presence on the social media LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook must further support the sustainable character of paper and cardboard. | |  | There will be good business in the future with paper and cardboard!
You can download the white paper in French or Dutch via the following links:
https://www.papier.be/nl/witboek-papier-natuurlijk/
https://www.papier.be/fr/livre-blanc-papier-naturellement/ Do you wish to receive a paper copy?
Please contact Maya.einhaus@papier.be
We wish you much reading pleasure and look forward to your response.
PAPIER.BE team
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