Many residents have questions about waste and raw materials policy, waste separation, and waste disposal tax. This is understandable. Therefore, you'll find answers to frequently asked questions about waste and raw materials policy here.
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Raw materials are becoming scarcer, the costs of processing residual waste are rising, and national and European regulations are changing. In addition, the way we view waste is changing. It is no longer just about collection, but about waste prevention, reuse, and making better use of raw materials.
The residual waste still contains valuable raw materials, and the target of an average of 100 kilos per inhabitant per year has not yet been met. In addition, analyses show that a large proportion of the residual waste still consists of valuable raw materials, such as organic waste and plastic packaging.
We explicitly involved residents in the development of the current waste and raw materials policy. Wishes, motives, and perceptions were inventoried in the spring of 2020 through a resident survey. This survey yielded good suggestions. We supplemented these suggestions with our own suggestions and possible measures, and presented them again in a second resident survey in early 2021.
Much has been achieved in the Waardlanden municipalities in recent years. Residents are separating waste and recyclable materials increasingly effectively, and the amount of residual waste has clearly decreased. Since 2020, residual waste per inhabitant has decreased from an average of 223 kilos per year to 129,5 kilos in 2025. That is a decrease of over 90 kilos per inhabitant.
The central government's circular economy objectives are laid out in the National Waste Management Plan (LAP3). All government bodies must take these into account when carrying out their waste management tasks. This means they must incorporate the central government's objectives into their local policy plans. There are no specific sanctions for failing to achieve these objectives. However, the central government has introduced an incineration tax for residual waste. This tax encourages municipalities to separate waste as much as possible and thus reduce residual waste. Municipalities that do not promote the circular economy and therefore generate large amounts of residual waste pay more incineration tax than those that do.
Because raw materials are becoming increasingly scarce, it's crucial that we reuse more. This way, we need to extract fewer new materials from the earth. To achieve this, we need to implement changes together at every stage of the supply chain: from the extraction of raw materials and the production of goods and (packaging) materials to the collection and processing of discarded goods and materials. If we consider the processing of goods and packaging in the disposal phase at the beginning of the supply chain, we can achieve a lot together. circular make a profit.
The Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and the Association of Waste Management Companies (VA) already exert a great deal of influence at the national level on producers to bring reusable products and materials onto the market.
In the 2021-2025 strategic note We propose several measures to increase the influence of our municipalities on national discussion topics. Municipalities also have a responsibility to make every effort to collect and reuse as many raw materials as possible.
The separate collection and processing of paper and cardboard, packaging glass, and tin is already at a very high level. Around 85 percent of these materials are already recycled. The separate collection of plastic packaging is relatively new and still developing.
In the coming years, we'll be working to reduce waste. And we need your help!