Braine-le-comte recycles cemetery flowers to honor fallen soldiers

The city of Braine-le-Comte in Belgium renewed its partnership with ECOCIM to recycle flowers from local cemeteries.

This initiative began in 2023 as part of a circular economy project to prevent floral waste from entering landfills after the Toussaint holiday. The local cemetery and environment services work with the company to collect withered chrysanthemums from six municipal cemeteries. Citizens place their flowers in designated collection areas where the plants are sorted and cared for over the winter.

The project also recovers and repurposes the flower pots. These plants are eventually sold through a short supply chain to give them a second life. The initiative diverted a large amount of waste over a two year period. The city used these recycled flowers to decorate the graves of former combatants during the 2026 Toussaint holiday.