
Find out more information and tips on preventing, separating and recycling waste in our blogs or watch our videos. From smart recycling suggestions to creative reuse ideas. Find out how you can contribute to effective waste separation and why you should separate waste at home - or not! Learn more about the benefits of source and post-separation and how these methods help us towards a more sustainable future.
Don't miss anything? Keep an eye on this page. We are constantly updating it with links to new blogs and videos.
Blogs and videos on waste prevention, separation and recycling
Blog and video: Proper waste separation. How do you do it?
Blog and video: What is the difference between source separation and post-separation?
Blog and video: From empty lighter to food scraps: what belongs to what?
Blog and video: Separating waste starts in the kitchen and bathroom
Blog and video: From waste to new raw materials: why separating waste is so important!
Blog and video: Waste prevention is even better than waste separation

With the 'Tidy Up' campaign, we want to make everyone aware of the need for less waste and even better separation. Together with the municipalities, we encourage residents to reduce waste and separate waste and important raw materials even better at home. This way, less residual waste is left for incineration and as many raw materials as possible can be recycled.
Important for the environment and your wallet
With the campaign, we want to let you know what you can do at home for our environment, the environment and future generations. And that separating waste properly ensures lower costs, than if you have a lot of residual waste. Because the less often you present residual waste, the lower the variable part of the annual waste charges will be from 2024 onwards. At least, if you live in Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam or Molenlanden. This is because residents of Vijfheerenlanden do not yet get a say in a part of the waste collection levy.
> Find out more about waste charges and tariffs
Test your knowledge with the Waste Separation Quiz
Styrofoam, an empty pizza box or a broken drinking glass. Do you know what belongs in which bin? Take the quiz and find out what you already know about waste separation. At the end of the quiz, you will receive tailored advice to increase your knowledge.
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More help & tips
Meet our environmental coaches
Preventing waste and separating it properly can be quite a challenge. That is why our environmental coaches are ready to inform and help residents in the best possible way. Our environmental coaches Ingrid and Nelleke are out and about every day. You can encounter them everywhere: on the streets, at meetings and events.
Not sure about something or in doubt? Don't hesitate and ask your question online or when you come across them!
Environmental education: raising awareness and changing behaviour among young people
Learned young is done old! This, of course, also applies to reducing waste and separating raw materials properly. That is why our education officer Ozan spends much of his time at the waste-free schools. Here he teaches about resource separation. He also holds talks with management about reducing residual waste. Because sharing knowledge is very important to encourage more understanding and different behaviour.
Every day we throw away all sorts of things as waste. Plastic, food scraps, cardboard, glass, an old table, you name it. To us, it is waste, we don't want anything more with it. Yet almost all this waste can very well get a second life. It is not waste. Reuse is good for the environment. By recycling, we don't have to throw away as much as waste. So we save raw materials and energy needed to make new products.
Circular economy
When you recycle waste, you help create a clean and waste-free environment, for yourself and future generations. That is the ultimate goal of a circular economy. A world with as little waste as possible where we reuse discarded products. If you buy products that are sustainably packaged or packaging-free, you also contribute significantly to this. We will work even harder to reduce waste in the coming years. We need your help to achieve this!
Less residual waste: good for the environment and your wallet
Together with the municipalities, we encourage and help all residents with less residual waste and even better separation. To this end, the municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Molenlanden and Vijfheerenlanden together with Waardlanden drew up a new waste and raw materials plan in 2021. This plan is called the Strategy Memorandum 2021-2025: Together for a waste-free and clean municipality. This plan describes how we will reduce the amount of residual waste to no more than 100 kilograms per inhabitant in 2025. If we prevent residual waste and reuse more of it, we will need to extract fewer new materials from the earth. This will leave less residual waste to be incinerated. Also, the central government's incineration tax makes burning residual waste increasingly expensive. So less residual waste is important for the environment and for your wallet.
Find out more in the strategy note and in the mid-term review strategy paper 2021 - 2025.
Measures show impact
As part of the new policy, several measures were taken, such as the closure of underground containers and the introduction of the environment pass. In the municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden, the recycling tariff was also introduced. Residents in these municipalities pay a rate each time they dispose of their residual waste. In the Vijfheerenlanden municipality, this does not yet apply. By 2024, residual waste had fallen to 133 kg of residual waste on average per inhabitant. A 40% decrease compared to the 232 kilos of residual waste average per inhabitant in 2020, before the introduction of the strategy memorandum. Separation of raw materials also increased across the area, with on average 9 kilos more vegetable, fruit, garden and food waste (VGF), 6 kilos more plastic packaging, metal packaging and beverage containers (pmd) and 1.5 kg more textiles per inhabitant.
Most waste is raw material
Some 75 per cent of our waste is raw material. Such as VGF, luirs and pmd. If we separate these properly, we can reuse them. For example, we can turn VGF waste into compost. From PMD we can make new packaging and products. And an old table gets a new life if we bring it to the recycling centre.
> Find out more about waste and resource separation
Tips and advice on waste separation?
Preventing residual waste and separating waste properly is sometimes quite a challenge. That is why our environmental coaches Ingrid and Nelleke are happy to help you with tips and advice.
Questions?
We can imagine that you have concerns and questions about policy and strategy. This is understandable. That is why you will find answers to frequently asked questions on our website.
Sixty per cent less waste in our region by 2025! How? By preventing unnecessary waste. If waste does arise, we separate it for reuse or recycling. This way, we do not waste raw materials and do not deplete the earth. We can only achieve this together. You can help too!
Looking for inspiration to avoid wasting resources? These practical tips will help you.
> Also discover tips against food waste
Tip 1 Choose reusable

Tip 2 Share, borrow and swap
Doing things like (garden) tools, a party tent and toys together saves money for the environment and the wallet.
Tip 3 Give away or sell
Do you no longer need a product yourself? Then don't throw it away. But give it a new life. Give it to someone else or sell it. Or bring it to the Kringlooplein, the thrift shop Or the gift shop.
Tip 4 Pimp second-hand items

Tip 5 Repair broken appliances

Tip 6 Save paper

Tip 7 Put waste in the right containers

Preventing waste and properly separating raw materials is better for the environment and your wallet. But how? We know that reducing residual waste and separating it properly can sometimes be a challenge. That is why we would like to help you with tips and advice.
Meet our environmental coaches Ingrid and Nelleke
Waste is a big topic in our municipalities. There are many questions and ideas among residents about reducing residual waste and separating raw materials. Our environmental coaches answer questions and help gather ideas by talking to residents. In this way, we work together with you towards a clean environment and a waste-free future.
Our environmental coaches are on the road every day. You can meet them everywhere: on the street, at meetings and events. So do you not know something or are in doubt? Don't hesitate and ask your question online or when our encounter them!
Environmental coach Nelleke: 'Separating waste makes sense! All kinds of new products are made from separated waste. Reuse and recycling saves raw materials, saves energy and reduces CO2-emissions.'
> Put your question to our environmental coaches Ingrid and Nelleke
Environmental education: raising awareness and changing behaviour among young people
Learned young is done old! Of course, the same goes for reducing waste and separating raw materials properly. That is why our education officer Ozan spends much of his time at the waste-free schools. Here he teaches about resource separation. He also holds talks with management about reducing residual waste. Because sharing knowledge is very important to encourage more understanding and different behaviour.
> Find out more about environmental education
Monitoring and enforcement: preventing serious pollution
To properly implement the changes around waste collection, supervisors are important. In waste collection, we sometimes come across serious pollution. Examples include waste placed near the collection containers and dumped waste in public spaces. Putting waste next to a collection container is prohibited. Apart from the high clean-up costs for this offence, collection containers can be difficult or sometimes not even emptied. Side deposits create a messy street scene and are bad for the safety and public health of a neighbourhood. They create litter, pests and dangerous situations. Moreover, they lead to loss of resources. Our supervisors do all they can to stop that. Of course, you can also contact them with your questions about waste and raw materials.