Environmental movement welcomes deposit on cans

The State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management Stientje van Veldhoven (D66) has decided in favour of a deposit on drinks cans. She has just communicated this decision. The deposit on cans will take effect on 31 December 2022. “Deposits will reduce the amount of cans in litter by 70 to 90 per cent. This is a major victory for the environment and […]”

Rob Buurman

3 Feb 2021

The State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management Stientje van Veldhoven (D66) has decided in favour of a deposit on drinks cans. She has just communicated this. The deposit on cans will take effect on 31 December 2022.

“A deposit will reduce the amount of cans in litter by 70 to 90 per cent. This is a major victory for the environment and our living surroundings,” the six environmental organisations Recycling Netwerk, Stichting De Noordzee, Plastic Soup Foundation, Plastic Soup Surfer, Greenpeace and Natuur & Milieu respond with delight.

Part of the business community has prevented a deposit on small bottles and cans in the Netherlands for years. The indignation over plastic pollution and the urgency to tackle litter grew in recent years. The environmental movement and society at large via the Statiegeldalliantie (Deposit Alliance) increased the pressure to introduce a deposit. After all, a deposit reduces the presence of cans and bottles in litter by 70 to 90 per cent.

The State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management Stientje van Veldhoven (D66) presented the companies involved with an ultimatum: either they fulfilled their promise of a 70% reduction of drinks packaging in litter, or a decision for a deposit would be made. Initially, the agreement only applied to plastic bottles. The number of plastic bottles in litter did not decrease, but rose by 7 per cent. Therefore, the cabinet decided in April last year that there will be a deposit on plastic bottles, starting on 1 July this year.

Following motions by Jan Paternotte (D66) et al. and Carla Dik-Faber (ChristenUnie) et al. in October 2019, the cabinet decided in April 2020 to apply the same agreements to cans. When Rijkswaterstaat's monitoring figures for the first half of 2020 showed not a decrease, but an increase of 19 per cent in the number of cans in the environment, we requested the cabinet in a joint position paper to decide to introduce a deposit even before the elections. The cabinet has honoured this wish today.

The deposit system for bottles and cans must now be designed in a consumer-friendly way. By far the most deposit packaging is returned to supermarkets. It is therefore in any case important that they now cooperate so that consumers can return their empty cans neatly to the supermarket again. Catering and small businesses are, incidentally, exempted by the government from the collection obligation.

It is still unclear whether juices and dairy are definitely excluded from the deposit scheme for cans, as is the case for plastic bottles. The environmental organisations point out that it would be good if a deposit was also put on this beverage packaging, as well as on squeeze pouches, which also end up in large numbers in litter. On 20 January, the German government decided to also include the drinks packaging of juices, wine and dairy in the deposit system.

Recycling Netwerk Benelux Suze Govers

Stichting De Noordzee Ewout van Galen

Plastic Soup Foundation Jeroen Dagevos

Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga

Greenpeace Meike Rijksen

Natuur & Milieu Jelmer Vierstra

Trouw, Cans too now really get a deposit. 'No realistic alternative has emerged'

RTL Nieuws, Farmer Gerrit happy with deposit: 'Five cows dead from eating cans'

NOS, Decision made: deposit on cans as of 31 December 2022

Het Laatste Nieuws, The Netherlands to introduce deposit on cans from the end of next year

De Standaard, The ten news facts of the day

NOS, 150 million cans on the street annually, how much does a deposit help?