Fierce debate over deposit return scheme in the House of Representatives

The debate in the House of Representatives about deposits was quite heated. At the Committee Stage on 11 April 2019, the opposition kept pressing the State Secretary not to limit the draft deposit legislation to small plastic bottles. In particular, the absence of cans in the draft regulations is a thorn in the side of the opposition.

Opposition members Suzanne Kröger (GroenLinks), Cem Lacin (SP), Frank van Wassenberg (Party for the Animals) and Gijs van Dijk (PvdA) pointed to the dangers of cans for cows. They stressed that there are twice as many cans as bottles in litter. They also pointed to the predictable shift by beverage producers from plastic to cans. For these reasons, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities also requests a deposit on cans. Six environmental organisations included this demand in their Opinion on the draft regulations.

Sharp questions also came from the ranks of the government parties. ChristenUnie MP Carla Dik-Faber recalled the motion asking for a specific approach for cans. After all, that motion received the unanimous support of the House of Representatives.

However, the State Secretary for I&W Stientje van Veldhoven (D66) refused to address the demand for a deposit on cans. She referred to the "broad approach to litter" to deal with the cans. She claimed that extending it to cans "would delay the legislative process".

The State Secretary claimed that 95% of cans are already recycled. This is not correct for aluminium cans, where the percentage is 62%. Furthermore, the current calculation method leads to overestimations. In addition, the EU is tightening the calculation method, meaning that metals recovered from incinerators but not originating from packaging may no longer be included in this calculation.

According to CDA MP Agnes Mulder, a deposit on cans is very expensive. This is incorrect. In expensive Norway, it costs a total of 3 øre. That is 0.32 euro cents per can. This covers all the costs of the Norwegian deposit system. With this amount, plus the recycling revenues and the unredeemed deposit portion, Norwegian supermarkets are paid a so-called handling fee, meaning they incur no additional costs.

By only working on deposits for plastic bottles, the State Secretary is making an "arbitrary cut", concluded GroenLinks MP Suzanne Kröger. The regulations are a "weak imitation", Kröger said.

SP MP Cem Laçin raised the question of why there is no obligation for supermarkets to take back empty packaging in the draft regulations. The State Secretary evaded this question.

During the Committee Stage on circular economy, the State Secretary did confirm that the current deposit for large bottles "remains in place". However, the fact that it is not enshrined in the legislation raises questions.

The State Secretary mentioned that she had received no fewer than 40 Opinions with feedback on the deposit legislation. You can read the Opinion of 6 environmental organisations here.

Nieuwsuur shows failing waste policy

The broadcasts of Nieuwsuur of 9 and 10 April showed that waste policy in the Netherlands has already been failing for decades. Time and again, Dutch governments allow themselves to be appeased by vague promises from polluting companies. The Plastic Pact is also a voluntary agreement, and voluntary agreements in the past have therefore not worked well.