Single use in the Netherlands, surprising figures

March 27, 2024

5 min read

In today's society, we face an alarming reality: the excessive consumption of single-use plastic and its detrimental effects on the environment. Recently, the European Commission launched the SUP regulation to reduce plastic use and waste therefore. Highly necessary, of course. But how bad is it in the Netherlands? To create a complete picture, we would like to sum up the current situation for you.

Daily waste

Imagine this: every day, as many as 19 million single-use plastic cups and food containers end up in landfills in the Netherlands. This shocking amount of plastic is not only unsustainable, but also has far-reaching environmental consequences. Fortunately, there is hope for the future, with an ambitious plan to reduce this volume by 40 percent by 2026 through the introduction of the plastic surcharge, deposit money and other regulations.

Every second, 15,000 plastic bottles roll over the counter worldwide . In the Netherlands there are more than 1.5 billion plastic bottles every year . A disturbing figure that needs to be reduced.

A whole pile of trash

Of course, all that plastic creates quite a mountain of waste. In 2020, Dutch households collected a whopping 9.1 million tons of waste, which amounts to a daunting 521 kilograms per person. Fortunately, an ambitious goal has been set to reduce this to just 30 kilograms per person.

Of course, the cost of that cannot be ignored. The cost of litter policy in the Netherlands cannot be ignored either, with an annual price tag of 250 million euros, or 15.10 euros per inhabitant. These expenses highlight the need to take effective measures to address the problem of litter.

The responsibility of big brands.

It is not only the responsibility of individuals and governments to reduce the use of single-use plastic. Big brands also play a crucial role in this debate. Take, for example, Coca-Cola, one of the most prevalent brands in litter. It produces 167,000 plastic bottles per minute worldwide, painting a stunning picture of the impact of mass consumption on the environment. So time for little ones like Dripl to challenge this.

Recycling: a mixed picture

Although the Netherlands leads Europe in plastic waste recycling, with an impressive 45% of plastic collected actually being recycled, there remains much room for improvement. The fact that the majority of plastic collected is still incinerated highlights the need to intensify our efforts in this area.

All figures that point to the fact that things could and should be better. Fortunately, there are also nice trends. In recent years you are no longer looked at strangely if you hop to the coffee bar with your own reusable bag. Something that will also appear more and more on the streets with the full SUP regulation now being imposed from the European Union. But we'll be happy to tell you more about that later.