Collection and recycling

Three systems exist for the separation of plastic packaging waste from households:

The differentiation between source separation and subsequent separation of plastic packaging materials, metal packaging materials, and beverage cartons is made because of the different conditions that exist in municipalities, among other reasons. For example, in places with a lot of high-rise buildings, where citizens have less space available for multiple waste bins, waste collection occurs via source separation in (underground) containers or via subsequent separation. Below, you will find a detailed representation of the collection of the plastic, metal, and beverage carton material streams via source and subsequent separation.

Recycling of packaging materials
The Netherlands is doing well when it comes to recycling, compared to other European countries. In 2016, 73% of all packaging materials put on the market were recycled. That exceeds the Dutch target of 70%, as recorded in the Packaging Decree, and the EU’s target of 55%.

Multiple parties are involved in the process of collecting, processing, sorting, and recycling used packaging materials. Each party is responsible for part of the chain:

• Municipalities are responsible for the collection of household waste. They choose a collection system and are responsible for the information provision towards citizens. The actual collecting is handled by municipal or private waste collectors.
• Collectors pick up the waste from households or collection points and transport the various waste streams to sorting or processing installations.
• Waste streams are sorted by different waste sorters that specialise in certain types of waste, for example glass, paper, metal, beverage cartons, or plastics.
• Recyclers process the separated materials into raw materials. These are then sold to producers who use them to make new packaging materials.

How can you take the recyclability of packaging materials into account during the design stage?
When developing new packaging materials, you can affect their recyclability in significant ways. To help you with this, the KIDV has developed a guideline with tips to design packaging materials made of plastic, glass, metal, paper/cardboard, and wood in a way that takes account of their ultimate recycling. This guideline can be found below under “More information.”

Two more tips of a general nature:

• Whenever possible, you should always use recycled materials for the production of new packaging materials. If you use recycled materials, you need fewer new raw materials and create a larger demand for recycled materials. This, in turn, helps increase the market for recycled materials and it stimulates the necessary quality improvement and innovation.
• Only use compostablematerials for specific purposes. It is hard for many consumers to properly dispose of compostable packaging materials. Many compostable packaging materials are difficult to process in composting facilities. Compostable plastic packaging materials that are not separated in the organic waste stream can end up in the recycling stream of mixed plastics via source or subsequent separation. This can disrupt the plastic recycling process, because compostable plastics have different properties than recyclable plastics and they may even start to compost during the recycling process. The KIDV therefore recommends only using compostable packaging materials for specific purposes. For all other purposes, recyclable materials should be used whenever possible. For more information on this topic, see “Material selection and packaging process.”