Residents in Amsterdam will no longer need to separate plastic recycling from their trash once city-owned waste management firm AEB launches a new setup to separate out plastic and drink cartons for them. "If we separate it after collection, we are less dependent on good behavior," the city said in a statement.
The machines used for this task have improved significantly, the city said. "As a result, machines can separate more plastic than we Amsterdammers ourselves."
Amsterdam's College of Mayor and Alderpersons presented a set of measures with which the city aims to halve its use of raw materials by 2030 and have a fully circular economy by 2050. The measures range from encouraging residents to waste less food, to promoting repairs and second-hand shops, to increasing the sustainability requirements for construction.
Netherlands residents are divided about how to deal with the coronavirus crisis in combination with the climate crisis. 13 percent think that all attention must now be given to fighting Covid-19, and the fight against climate change should be put on the back burner. But 28 percent see the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to rebuild the Netherlands in a more sustainable way, according to a survey by I&O Research.
Farmers are willing to take steps towards nature-inclusive agriculture, but only if there are the right financial incentives, according to a study by the Netherlands' environmental assessment agency PBL and the VU University Amsterdam among 950 members of farmers' association LTO, and another 150 farmers not associated with LTO.
Amsterdam plans to produce enough sustainable energy by 2030 to supply the electricity demands of 80 percent of the city's households. The Regional Energy Strategy (RES) presented by the mayor and aldermen on Wednesday shows that Amsterdam aims to generate 127 megawatts of wind energy, 400 megawatts of solar energy on large roofs, and 150 megawatts of solar energy on small roofs when the next decade arrives.
For the first time ever, more Netherlands residents traveled to their vacation destination abroad by plane than by car. The number of plane trips increased by 3 percent to 10.1 million last year, while the number of car trips decreased by 3 percent to 10 million, according to figures from the Dutch Tourism Board, NOS reports.
The Dutch government has formulated ambitious sustainability goals, like reducing CO2 emissions by 49 percent by 2030 and achieving a fully circular economy by 2050, but there is no coherent vision on what a sustainable society will look like and how to get to such a society, the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure said in its advisory report titled "Toward
Dutch European Commissioner Frans Timmermans is pushing to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent, and to achieve this by 2050, according to a 'Green Deal' he and European Commission chairman Ursula von der Leyen will present on Wednesday. The package of measures will overhaul the entire European legislation, the Volkskrant reported on Tuesday.
Almost 40 percent of passengers who fly through Schiphol do not fly further than 750 kilometers, Greenpeace reports based on research by consultancy and engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV. According to Greenpeace, 750 kilometers is in many cases a distance that can easily be traveled by train or electric bus, saving a lot of CO2 emissions during these short flights' taxiing, takeoffs and landings.
Bol.com is investing in sustainability. On Wednesday the largest online store in the Netherlands launched a separate page for only sustainable items. And Bol.com aims to reduce the CO2 emissions to zero within five years, general manager Huub Vermeulen said to AD.
Generating electricity from biomass creates more greenhouse gas emissions than coal and gas, according to a yet-to-be-published study by DNV GL consultancy commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management that newspaper AD has in its possession.
The government is taking too little account of public health in its climate policy, according to a letter 10 regional GGDs sent to Minster Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate. The community health services call on the government to include them in the development of climate plans, AD reports based on the letter in its possession.
Travel organization TUI will no longer offer flights between the Netherlands and Paris from he autumn of next year. The company wants to do its part to protect the environment in this way and points out that Paris can easily and comfortably be reached by train, RTL Z reports.
Ruling parties VVD and D66 think that the Netherlands can be a world leader when it comes to electric air travel. And to achieve that the Netherlands should do much more to stimulate and experiment with electric flying, VVD parliamentarian Remco Dijkstra and D66 parliamentarian Jan Paternotte proposed during a parliamentary debate on aviation, NOS reports.
The ideal advertising foundation SIRE is launching a campaign on Monday to encourage Dutch people to not throw away their broken items immediately, but first try and repair them. SIRE hopes that the campaign will make Dutch aware of the value of their possessions, ANP reports.
The monthly costs of driving an electric car in the Netherlands is currently only 1 percent higher than the costs of driving cars that run on petrol or diesel, according to car leasing company LeasePlan's annual Car Cost Index. The only European country doing better than the Netherlands on this front is Norway, where the costs of electric- and internal combustion cars are equal.
Prince Harry visited Amsterdam on Tuesday morning to launch a new project focused on sustainable tourism at the A'DAM tower.
The British Prince has been working on this project for over two years, collaborating with companies like Booking.com, SkyScanner, CTrip, TripAdvisor and Visa. The project is intended to better protect tourist destinations, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.
This is the second time this year Harry visited the Netherlands. In May, he went to The Hague to launch the Invictus Games, which will take place in the city next year.
An ever-growing group of Dutch want to make their homes more sustainable. 55 percent are currently seriously considering taking sustainability measures in their home. For nearly 60 percent, saving money is the most important reason to go green, according to a survey by Panalwizard among 1,022 Dutch adults with a rental or owner-occupied home, AD reports.
People in the Netherlands increasingly opt for cooking on electric stoves instead of gas ones. Of the hobs that were sold last year, only 27 percent were gas, the other 73 percent were electric. A year earlier 58 percent of hobs sold were electric, according to research by environmental organization Natuur & Milieu, NU.nl reports.
A team of students from Delft University of Technology took second place in the Solar Decathlon Europe - an international competition for universities to build the most innovative and sustainable house. The Delft team was just 1.7 points behind the overall winner.
TU Delft participated with team MOR, which stands for modular office renovation. Their concept involves converting inefficient office buildings into energy efficient homes. According to the team, the Netherlands faces two main issues - inefficient office buildings and a housing shortage.
Utrecht declared the climate a state of emergency on Thursday night. A majority of the city council supported a motion by animal rights party PvdD calling for maximum effort to be put into limiting global warming as much as possible. With this, Utrecht follows cities like Amsterdam, Haarlem, London, Paris and Sydney, who also declared a climate emergency, NOS reports
The Dutch government made an additional amount of 80 million euros available for promoting a circular economy in 2019 and 2020. The money is intended for projects that "fit in with the transition to an economy without waste", and thereby contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management announced.
The Netherlands' goal is to have a 50 percent circular economy by 2030, and have its economy be 100 percent waste-free by 2050.
The majority of Amsterdam residents supports taking measures against climate change, the Amsterdam center for research, information and statistics OIS found in a survey among 1,400 locals. Around 70 percent called the switch to sustainable, clean energy a good thing and feel responsible to contribute to this transition. And only 5 percent said climate change is exaggerated, the city said in a press release.
A new study of senior managers at Dutch businesses found that firms in the Netherlands are spending far more than normal on training and developing their staff. The study also found that many of the business leaders were focused on improving sustainability, but that they were divided on the Brexit issue.
