More plastic bottles to have deposits after complaint from Recycling Netwerk
According to the Decree on measures for plastic beverage bottles, a deposit must be levied on “water or soft drinks in a plastic bottle with a capacity of 3 litres or less”. In practice, this excludes other beverages, such as juices and dairy products, from the deposit legislation. Together with four other environmental organisations, RNB protested as early as 2019 that this […]
According to the Decision on measures for plastic beverage bottles, a deposit must be levied on “water or soft drink in a plastic bottle with a capacity of 3 litres or less”. This means other beverages, such as juices and dairy products, are in practice excluded from deposit legislation. RNB, along with four other environmental organisations, protested back in 2019 that this exemption would lead to confusion and loopholes.
In November 2021, Recycling Netwerk Benelux (RNB) noticed that many plastic bottles containing (fruit) juice, “multivitamins” or “nectar” were on the shelves without a deposit. But upon checking the ingredients, we discovered that they also contained added sugars and water. And according to the legal definition, that makes them a soft drink, meaning a deposit must be charged. Whether this is a case of evasion or confusion, the legal definition of soft drink is very clear: “a drink which (…) consists of: water (…) and sugars or sweeteners; to which may be added: (…) fruit or plant juices (…)”. In other words, when a drink consists of a combination of juices, sugars and water, it is a soft drink. By selling these soft drinks in bottles without a deposit, the beverage producers concerned would be in violation of the deposit law.
Enforcement request
Recycling Netwerk engaged waste lawyer Rogier Hörchner and, via an enforcement request, asked the ILT to classify 15 examined drinks from the brands Riedel, Albert Heijn and Jumbo as soft drinks and subject them to the deposit legislation. The consumer programme Kassa (BNNVARA) paid attention to it on 27 November.
The ILT has now ruled that RNB is correct for all examined drinks and that bottles containing juice, water and sugar indeed fall under the deposit scheme. The ILT instructs the three producers addressed to levy a deposit on the beverage bottles concerned within 3 months, and will subsequently enforce this with periodic penalty payments if it turns out that the companies mentioned are still in violation after the remedy period. All have responded that they will comply with applicable laws and regulations.
The problem is more widespread than the 15 products cited in RNB's enforcement request, which was based on a quick scan of a few supermarkets. According to Kassa's own inventory, it could concern around 100 beverage bottles. RNB therefore requested the ILT to come up with an action plan to enforce the deposit on all other plastic bottles containing soft drinks where no deposit is levied. In response, the ILT replied that it would communicate the ruling to various trade associations and will carry out checks at supermarkets around June 2022.
“This is a good thing for the environment. This ruling ensures more correct compliance with the deposit law. We will find fewer of these plastic bottles in the environment. After all, deposits reduce the number of plastic bottles in nature by 70 to 90 per cent”, responds Robbert van Duin of environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk with delight.
Exemption for juices difficult to maintain
This ruling also introduces a deposit on bottles with juice as an ingredient. This makes the previously made exemption for juices (without water or sugar) difficult to maintain. “We have protested against the exemptions in the deposit legislation from the start and debunked the fallacies cited. The ILT's ruling makes it clear that correct compliance with the deposit law leads to the bizarre situation where a deposit must be charged on drinks with juice containing some sugar and water, and not on drinks consisting of juice without water and sugar”, says RNB.
“For the environment, it is necessary for the Netherlands to move towards a deposit on all beverage packaging, without distinction or exemptions based on the content of the packaging. The packaging pollutes the environment, regardless of what drink was inside. So just remove that unfounded exemption for juice”, concludes environmental organisation RNB.
Germany previously decided to expand its well-functioning deposit system to all beverage packaging, regardless of the type of beverage it contains.
In the media:
Trouw, https://www.trouw.nl/duurzaamheid-natuur/ook-statiegeld-op-fles-sap-met-water-en-suiker~bcb90307
Kassa, https://www.bnnvara.nl/kassa/artikelen/er-moet-statiegeld-komen-op-sapflessen-besluit-ilt and https://www.bnnvara.nl/kassa/videos/576543 (video)
Nu.nl, https://www.nu.nl/economie/6179743/inspectie-breidt-statiegeldplicht-voor-plastic-flessen-uit.html
This page is automatically translated. A human review will follow soon.
