An easy way to get rid of your country’s plastic waste is to ship it to other countries, which is exactly what the Dutch government did for many years. As a result of the huge amounts which were
shipped to Asia, China now stopped importing plastic from the Netherlands. The country however still ships plastic waste to other countries. In total, 361 thousand tons of plastic waste for recycling was sent to foreign countries in 2018. Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia became more important export destinations for Dutch plastic waste in 2018, in comparison to a few years back. This year, Malaysia consequently decided to return 3000 tons of plastic waste to the countries of origin.
Still, the major part of the plastic waste is being recycled in the Netherlands. The government of the Netherlands exerts its influence by setting up laws and regulations to increase the recycling of plastic waste. In 2017, 1650 kilotons of plastic waste were processed, plastic packaging being the biggest contributor (32%), followed by plastics in daily articles of use (12%) and plastics in clothes/textile (9%). For the plastics in the latter two categories, no recycling policies exist and a major part of the waste will be burned.
For plastic packages, policies do exist. Still, only 243 kilotons of plastic packaging, of the total amount of 512 kilotons, will be recycled. This means that about 52.5% is being burned to produce energy.
←Consumers and companies buy and use plastic packaging (in total 512 kilotons)
- ←Bottles that are collected through the deposit system are made into new bottles again, recycled almost entirely.
←Separated waste does not mean that it will, or can, be recycled. A considerate part will be burned.
←Of the residual waste, almost everything will be burned.