Can, bottle deposit scheme needs more collection points, higher payout to reduce litter

The deposit scheme on cans and plastic bottles has resulted in a sea of litter in Dutch cities as people tear open trash bags in search of cans or bottles to return - something the Ministry of Infrastructure did not see coming, according to documents NOS acquired through the Open Government Act. The best way to solve the litter problem is to have more collection points for cans and bottles and increase the deposit so people are more likely to return them, Rob Buurman, director of the NGO Fair Resource Foundation, told the broadcaster.

Buurman, like the government, did not see the litter problem coming. “We looked abroad, and this did not happen there,” he said. “Apparently, enough people in the Netherlands live in such poverty that it pays to search trash cans. And perhaps compared to other Northern European countries, we have a higher density of people and we live more on the streets. That leads to more cans and bottles in public waste bins.”

But the main problems are that the deposit is too low and there are too few collection points, he said. “If I buy a can of soft drink somewhere, I have to keep it with me for the rest of the day, collect it at home, and take it to a supermarket later. For many people, that is too much to ask.”

The Netherlands implemented the deposit scheme on small plastic bottles (1 billion pieces per year) in mid-2021 and on cans (2.5 billion pieces annually) in April last year. That resulted in fewer cans and bottles in the litter, but the mess on the street due to opened garbage bins has increased significantly, the Dutch Association of Cleaning Services (NVRD) told NOS. Large municipalities need two additional full-time employees per year to clean it up.

The government left it up to the business community to determine how many and where they placed collection points and did not obligate them to do so. The government’s “minimum target” of 5,000 collection machines for small bottles was only recently met, over two years after the deposit scheme for bottles was implemented, NOS reported.

Verpact, the organization behind the deposit scheme, promised improvement in December after disappointing return percentages and pressure from society. Only 68 percent of bottles are returned. The legal target is 90 percent. In three years, Verpact had almost 400 million euros of deposit money left over that was not paid out because the bottles or cans were not returned. The organization said it would use that money for information campaigns and over 5,000 new collection points.

Verpact promised to achieve the 90 percent target by 2026. The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate called that too slow and demanded faster improvement under the threat of fines of up to 250 million euros. The Inspectorate also wants to increase the deposit on cans and bottles to 50 cents. Verpact is against this and has threatened a lawsuit, according to the broadcaster.