The average Dutch person produces 490 kilos of waste per person per year. This puts us slightly above the European average. What we as a Dutchman do better than average is to separate waste. We separate approximately 58 percent of our waste. However, this can be much better. About 170 kilos still end up in the residual waste. According to a calculation by Milieu Centraal, we can separate 80% of our waste.
The importance of separating waste
Everyone knows that separating waste is good for the environment. But why actually? Reusing waste is cheaper than using new raw materials. The more waste we reuse, the less raw materials are needed. As a result, less surface is needed to grow these raw materials. The result is fewer felled forests. In addition, it usually also takes less energy to recycle a product than to make the products. For example, new aluminum requires 20 times more energy than remelting old aluminum. Another big advantage is that recycling results in fewer greenhouses than burning waste.
National Recycle Week
From 12 to 18 October, the national recycling week. Manufacturers, retailers, hardware stores, supermarkets, electrical retailers, thrift shops, municipalities and collection agencies participate in this week. During this week, they call on anyone who still has old electrical appliances at home or at work to take them - when repair is no longer possible - to one of the municipal recycling centers or 10.000 collection points in the Netherlands.
RataPlan recycled
Items that are clean and not broken can of course be returned to the thrift stores. This is an easy and good way to give a product a second life. RataPlan does a lot more besides to recycle products. For example, in August the Recycle factory opened in Heerhugowaard. All textiles from, among other things, various clothing containers are sorted here by the employees according to usability and completeness, and then continue on their way to be recycled even further.
Unfortunately, you cannot return everything to the cycle. There are many different types of products that it is sometimes difficult to know which container to put it in. Not sure where a product should go? Milieu Centraal has a handy tool for this (the waste separation guide). Enter the product or product group and then you will find an explanation of how best to separate the waste.