Waste and packaging

Every year the Netherlands produce 1.2 million tons of plastic refuse, much of which (about 45%) is household waste, such as plastic sheets, butter tubs, meat dishes, plastic bags, bottles and flasks. At present, only a limited part of that waste is being recycled. Ms Jacqueline Cramer, Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment would like to promote the recycling of packing materials. She has drawn up a plan for the separate collection and recycling of plastic packing materials coming from households.

The polluter must pay
On 1 January 2006 the Royal Decree on the processing of packaging materials, paper and cardboard came into force. Since then municipalities have no longer been responsible for the collection and handling of glass, paper, cardboard, scrap metal and plastics. This has now become the responsibility of the business community, under the motto "the polluter must pay". However, municipalities are still in charge of collecting the remaining household waste, consisting of those waste materials that are not collected separately.

Framework agreement
In July 2007 the business community, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and the department of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment signed a so-called framework agreement on packaging materials and street litter, in which they set out their plans to promote packaging materials recycling and street litter control over the period from 2008 to 2012. These plans include the collection and recycling of plastic packaging materials from households, which should lead to 42% reuse of waste material in 2020 compared to the current 20%.

Waste disposal fund
The framework agreement states that municipalities are in charge of collecting packaging waste. It is up to them to organise this, for instance by placing waste recycling units in the street or by providing special waste bags. To this end they will receive financial contributions from the business community. The intention is to set up a so-called waste disposal fund. The minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment will provide an annual contribution of 115 billion euro. The draft plan to set up such a waste disposal fund was submitted to the House of Representatives in December 2008.

Pilot projects
In the meantime, pilot projects have been set up in 32 municipalities in order to establish the effectiveness of separate collection of plastic waste from households. By the end of 2009, a system of separated waste collection has to be in place in every municipality in the Netherlands.