Government has lost its grip on plastic packaging policy

On 27 May 2013, the daily newspaper Trouw reported that the national government has completely lost its grip on the collection and recycling of disposable packaging. It also notes that the Kennisinstituut Duurzaam Verpakken (Institute for Sustainable Packaging), which is supposed to prepare the new packaging policy as an independent player, is funded and steered by the industry.

Trouw refers to a reconstruction it made of the period since 1986, when then-Minister Nijpels assumed an expansion of the successful deposit system.

Furthermore, the following is noted, among other things:

The slimmed-down civil service cannot make a fist against the industry, which has actually expanded its number of lobbyists enormously.

And because politicians also succeed each other quickly, the government no longer has a memory and business is conducted with great naivety.

Interviews and both public and confidential documents show that the tide turned with the introduction of small plastic drinks bottles in the 1990s. These did not have to be collected with a deposit because the industry led people to believe that only small numbers were involved.

When the market and the environment were flooded with them, Minister Pronk presented the sector with an ultimatum. He threatened to introduce a deposit on those small bottles and cans if 80 per cent of that waste was not collected. The industry never took any notice.

Successive ministers did not intervene, but negotiated new agreements.

Recently, the Kennisinstituut Duurzaam Verpakken has had to draft new policy.

The industry also pays for this institute's research.

Source: Trouw on 27 May 2013 by Hans Marijnissen