Dutch people left 374 million in deposits in recent years

• Blackbird Stikkelorum

  Domestic Editor

Dutch people have lost 374 million euros in deposits over the past three years by not returning bottles and cans. This is evident from figures from Verpact, the organization that is responsible for the collection of deposit packaging on behalf of beverage manufacturers. The result is that consumers now pay for this collection, while this should actually be borne by producers.

Producers are far from meeting the legally required collection percentage of 90 percent, according to the figures that Verpact published today. An estimated 71 percent of all plastic bottles were collected last year, slightly more than the 68 percent in 2022.

The collection percentage for cans was even lower. Since the introduction of a deposit on cans in April last year, an average of half of the cans have been returned. According to Verpact, there is an upward trend: in the last quarter of 2023 it was around 65 percent. By 2024, 90 percent of the cans must be returned by law.

The lack of collection means that many deposits are not returned to the consumers who buy the bottles and cans. Verpact uses that money for the “optimization and expansion of the deposit system.”

The producers of beverage packaging do not have to invest that amount in the collection system themselves. Their financial contribution was further reduced by 11 percent for large plastic bottles and 13 percent for small plastic bottles as of 2023.

And that is wrong, says Suze Govers of the Fair Resource Foundation, until recently called Recycling Network Benelux. Because producers now benefit from their own failures and consumers pay the bill.

“The government has determined that producers are responsible for setting up a deposit system. Now you see that they have set it up so poorly that very few bottles and cans are returned. They are using many millions from consumers to improve the system. That’s not the intention at all.”

The Ministry of Infrastructure said in a response that it finds it “a great shame” if consumers do not collect their deposit. “It is up to consumers to claim their money back and up to the sector to ensure that this is easily accessible.”

According to the ministry, there is indeed an incentive for producers to achieve the collection target, otherwise they will face a fine from the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate. The percentages announced today show that Verpact “really needs to get to work and invest heavily to further increase the figures”, according to the ministry.

Govers of the Fair Source Foundation calls it “problematic” that the collection of plastic bottles last year remained at 71 percent. But according to Verpact director Hester Klein Lankhorst, things cannot go any faster.

“Behavior change takes time,” she says NOS Radio 1 News. “Other countries, such as Denmark and Norway, took six to eight years. It just doesn’t go much faster than this.”

Govers does not agree with that. “It works in other countries. Lithuania, for example, took a year and a half to achieve a collection of 90 percent.”

“Producers should have provided a much better deposit system from the start. At every point of sale you should be able to hand in your bottle or can and get your deposit back. This is the case in almost all other deposit countries. In this way, much more will be achieved back.”

Klein Lankhorst doesn’t like that. “I think that really goes too far. We don’t want to incur costs for the middle class.”