Amsterdam trash will be collected over “a few days”; Entrepreneurs help in Maastricht

The piles of trash in Amsterdam will again be collected again starting on Wednesday now that an agreement has been reached on a new collective labor agreement between the municipalities and trade unions. Cleaning up all the rubbish will take several days, the municipality of Amsterdam reports. Meanwhile, in Maastricht, business owners stepped up to help get the job done there.

Since Monday, about 500 municipal workers, including garbage collectors, have been on strike in Amsterdam to demand higher wages and automatic compensation for inflation in next year’s contract. The strike caused garbage bags to pile up next to rubbish bins, with recycling bins also overflowing in some areas. Cleaning up all the waste will take several days, according to the municipality.

Because of the loose waste, residents were asked to continue keep their garbage inside until the garbage containers are emptied. Garbage bags, wheelie bins and bulk waste can be put out again starting next week. In addition, the municipality is looking at whether a number of common points where people can drop off trash can open up as early as Wednesday.

“I am very satisfied with the agreement we have concluded with the trade unions”, said Hester van Buren, the alderman in charge of staffing issues. “Especially because we succeeded in giving employees in the lower pay scales a relatively higher wage increase, so that they have more net earnings left over. That was really necessary, because they were hit the hardest in the wallet.” According to Van Buren, the strike has made the capital aware of “how important our people are for a clean, safe and liveable city.”

A number of entrepreneurs in the Maastricht city center hired street sweepers on Wednesday to clean up the streets in the areas around their businesses. The cleaners removed rubbish from the Platielstraat and around the Vrijthof, as well as other areas. In this way, the entrepreneurs wanted to prevent rubbish from being left in front of their companies and pubs as a result of the announced strike by the street sweepers and garbage collection services.

Although the strikes have been suspended, that does not mean that streets and squares in Maastricht will be swept clean again starting on Wednesday. Wheelie bins are also not yet being emptied. “That is not possible because the schedules have not yet been filled in,” said a spokesperson for the municipality. Cleaning and garbage collection will start in the Limburg capital from Thursday.

There was a large amount of litter and trash on the streets after the Carnival celebrations. It was feared that this would be delayed for a week as a result of the announced strikes. A number of entrepreneurs then decided to take the initiative to clean up themselves.

In Den Bosch, the streets were going to be swept clean on Wednesday anyway, even if the unions continued the strike. According to a spokesperson for the municipality, cleaning streets in the Noord-Brabant capital falls under a different service than the garbage collectors, who went on strike and the street sweepers did not take part.

That is why the cleaning of streets and squares in Den Bosch has already started on Wednesday morning, she said. Wheelie bins will begin to be picked up on Thursday. People who want to get rid of their rubbish on Wednesday can bring it to a bulk waste point.