Waste tax

With the introduction of the new policy plan, you will have a say in part of the waste levy from 1 January 2024. A part is fixed and a part is variable. This varying part is called the recycling rate. It is a new way of calculating waste charges. Do you separate raw materials well and have little residual waste? Then your costs will be lower than if you have a lot of residual waste. This does not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden. This municipality will decide on the recycling tariff after evaluating the effects of the other measures.

Your municipality determines the amount of the waste collection fee, i.e. the fixed part and the recycling fee. The municipality takes into account, for example, people with a lot of medical waste, litter pickers and those with insufficient income.

We have calculated that the operating costs of the new alternate charge collection system are about the same as the operating costs of the collection system at present. However, there are 'one-off implementation costs' in the first few years to introduce the new system.

A recycling fee proves to work very well in encouraging residents to separate their waste. This reduces the amount of residual waste we have to incinerate. As a result, it contributes as much as possible to making waste management circular and sustainable in the region.

Experience in other municipalities shows that the target of 100 kilograms per inhabitant per year is not achievable without the introduction of a recycling fee. Almost all municipalities that currently have less than 100 kilograms per inhabitant per year of residual waste have introduced a recycling tariff for this purpose. Examples in our region are the municipalities in the Betuwe (AVRI municipalities), the municipality of Altena and the Hoeksche Waard (RAD).

Where we use the term recycling rate, other municipalities call it a variable rate.

Over of 50 per cent of municipalities in the Netherlands have some form of tariff differentiation (also known as diftar). Yet we often get questions about cities like Utrecht and Amsterdam and why they stop using diftar, have no diftar, or switch to post-separation. Large cities have many flats, flats and upstairs houses. There, waste separation proves much more difficult. These municipalities are therefore not comparable to ours. Experiences from other municipalities and studies show that diftar is a successful means of reducing the amount of residual waste and recovering more valuable raw materials. This is why more and more municipalities are opting for it.

A recycling tariff means you will start paying each time you take the residual waste container to the street or throw a residual waste bag into the underground residual waste container. Along with the introduction of the recycling tariff, the municipality will adjust the current fixed tariff. In this way, the municipality will make the waste collection charge partially variable. Do you separate raw materials well and have little residual waste? Then your costs will be lower than if you have a lot of residual waste.

You will therefore not pay per kilo (i.e. not for the weight), but per time you present residual waste. The waste disposal fee will therefore consist of a fixed rate and a variable part. The fixed rate is the same for all residents in your municipality. You can influence the variable part by separating your waste properly.
This does not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden. This municipality will decide on the recycling rate after an evaluation on the effects of the other measures.

Your municipality sets the amount of the waste collection charge, i.e. the fixed rate and the recycling rate. The municipality considers people with a lot of medical waste, litter pickers and those with insufficient income.

From 1 January 2024, the municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden will calculate the waste charges in a new way. You will have an influence on the amount of part of the waste disposal charges. A part is fixed and a part is variable. This variable part is called the recycling rate. Do you separate raw materials well and have little residual waste? Then your costs will be lower than if you separate worse and have a lot of residual waste.

The fixed part is the same for everyone. You pay this at the beginning of the year together with the municipal taxes. At the end of a year, the municipality knows what you have to pay for the varying part. So you pay this varying part afterwards. The amount depends on how often you had your residual waste container emptied or threw a bag in the collection container for residual waste. We read this number with a chip on your residual waste container or the times you opened the residual waste container with your environmental pass.

The municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden are introducing the recycling tariff from 1 January 2024.

The Vijfheerenlanden municipality has not yet decided whether and, if so, when to introduce the recycling tariff there. 

No, the rates for 2024 have not yet been formally set. This is because the municipal council determines the exact split between the fixed and alternating part of the waste collection fee. The alternating part is called the recycling rate.

The municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden have received a proposal from the Waardlanden board for the 2024 recycling rates. The board has also advised the municipalities to use the same recycling tariff. The councils of the three municipalities must then formally adopt the tariffs. The recycling rate will not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden. This municipality will decide on the recycling tariff after an evaluation on the effects of the other measures.

Proposed recycling rates 2024*

The proposed tariff depends on your living situation and how you offer your residual waste:

*Please note: These tariffs are not final. The municipal councils of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden have yet to formally adopt these tariffs.

The recycling fee comes on top of the fixed part of the waste collection fee. The fixed part for 2024 is also yet to be set by the municipal councils. The fixed part is the same for everyone in your municipality. You pay this at the beginning of the year together with the municipal taxes. At the end of a year, the municipality knows what you have to pay for the variable part. So you pay this varying part afterwards. The amount depends on how often you had your residual waste container emptied or threw a bag in the collection container for residual waste. We read this number with a chip on your residual waste container or the times you opened the residual waste container with your environmental pass.

You get to influence the amount of part of the waste collection charge. A part is fixed and a part is variable. This varying part is called the recycling rate. Do you separate raw materials well and have little residual waste? Then your costs will be lower than if you have a lot of residual waste. Because you then have to take the residual waste container to the road less often or throw a bag of residual waste in the collection container for residual waste. Your municipality takes into account residents with a lot of medical waste, litter pickers and households with insufficient income.

Yes, there are. These are also proposed in the strategy paper, such as additional containers for glass and paper in the district, provision of a small kitchen GFT bin and additional education on the usefulness and necessity of waste separation. These measures alone are not enough to fulfil the circular ambitions.

Yes, a large number of municipalities have successfully introduced recycling pricing, also known as rate differentiation or diftar, in recent years. The result: people separate their waste better and the amount of residual waste is reduced. This is studied annually and published in a "Household Waste Benchmark" report. For example, the most recent benchmark (reference year 2021) shows that diftar municipalities have remarkably less residual waste and lower costs than municipalities that have not applied diftar. Across the entire benchmark, diftar municipalities have 46 per cent less residual waste and 21 per cent lower management costs than non-diftar municipalities. 'Without tariff differentiation, it is practically impossible to reduce the amount of residual waste below 100 kg per inhabitant. All 39 municipalities in the benchmark that met the 100 kg target introduced some form of tariff differentiation,' the report concludes.

Experience in other municipalities that have introduced a recycling tariff shows that this can be a temporary problem. Once residents get used to the new tariff system, bag dumping decreases, usually after about three months. Good education on waste separation (what belongs where) and explanations on how to ensure less residual waste helps to get it right. As a result, fewer people will dump waste. That is why our environmental coaches and supervisors are ready to inform and help residents to reduce residual waste and separate (even) better where necessary. This is how we work together with residents towards a clean and waste-free region.

Some residents of neighbouring municipalities now bring their residual waste to the free-access residual waste collection containers and environmental centres in our municipalities. By locking the residual waste collection containers with a pass system and introducing a recycling fee, our municipalities are in line with how neighbouring municipalities do it. As a result, waste tourism will decrease rather than increase.

By introducing a recycling fee, we will also counter abuse of the collection containers by entrepreneurs. They will no longer benefit financially by throwing their waste in the collection containers for free.

This needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible, after investigation (enforcement) has taken place. The plan and budget take into account more deployment of enforcement and clean-up teams. Incidentally, the experience of other municipalities is that waste dumping almost never leads to unmanageable situations. In practice, therefore, these negative effects of a recycling tariff are not so bad.

Illegal waste dumping unfortunately always occurs and cannot be prevented. However, it is important to clear them as soon as possible, after an investigation (enforcement) has taken place. This way, we counteract copycat behaviour. People add waste if they see that something is already there.
The plan and budget take into account increased deployment of enforcement and clean-up teams. Incidentally, the experience of other municipalities is that waste dumping almost never leads to unmanageable situations. In practice, therefore, these negative effects of a recycling tariff are not so bad.

The introduction of a recycling tariff requires us to change the collection system. The cost of this is fully 'recovered' the savings in processing costs of residual waste. This includes the other additional burdens involved in a variable tariff, such as costs of data processing, communication and enforcement.

If we assume the equality principle, every litre of residual waste costs the same. It does not matter whether you present this waste in a container or a collection container.
Thus, according to the equity principle, a 60-litre waste deposit in a neighbourhood container should be one-fourth the rate of offering a 240-litre container.

No, from 1 January 2024, 3 different recycling rates will apply in municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden: for high-rise buildings, for low-rise buildings and for the outlying area.

Residents of high-rise buildings are expected to offer rubbish bags faster than residents of low-rise buildings. They have containers for pmd, paper/cardboard and VGF at their homes. Residents of flats, flats and upper dwellings will start paying a lower rate per bin bag deposited in the residual waste collection container from 1 January 2024 than residents who have containers at their homes.

The municipalities determine the level of waste charges, i.e. the fixed part as well as the recycling rates. These rates for the year 2024 are not yet known at this time. Until 31 December 2023, you pay one fixed amount for the waste collection fee.

The recycling tariff will not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden in 2024. This municipality will decide on the recycling tariff after an evaluation on the effects of the other measures.

For more information on waste charges, contact your local council.

Paying per kilo is technically more complicated and therefore more expensive to buy and maintain. Costs you pay as a resident. Also, collection containers with a weighing system malfunction more often. That is why the choice was made to pay per bin bag or residual waste container emptied.
Furthermore, paying per time is less prone to abuse. If someone else throws waste into a residual waste container at the time it is on the street, this does not affect the amount you have to pay. This is because the waste is not weighed.

For example, as long as nappies still have to go with residual waste, the recycling rate will lead to additional costs. The question is whether this is reasonable. Households with babies have the extra nappy waste for a certain period and there is a conscious choice behind it. That does not apply to those with medical waste.

For these residents, the extra residual waste is indefinite. And it is not a conscious choice. Many municipalities that have introduced a recycling tariff therefore compensate this target group, for instance by not charging them for some residual waste offers.

The exact details of this scheme for the Waardlanden municipalities will be worked out and submitted to the municipal councils as part of the target group policy.

The introduction of the recycling tariff would start costing litter pickers money. That, of course, is not the intention! That is why we are working with the municipalities on a scheme for litter pickers. You do not have to throw away litter you have picked up  obviously not to pay out of their own pockets. That is why litter pickers will soon receive a separate pass. Of course, we make arrangements about the use of the litter pass in advance.