Feasibility of can collection plan questionable

Together with CBL and FNLI, the Dutch Packaging Waste Fund announced at the end of 2021 a plan for the collection of cans in unmanned deposit machines in public places, excluding supermarkets. Commissioned by Recycling Network Benelux, the consultancy firm Eunomia tested whether the Dutch Packaging Waste Fund will meet the legal targets with this plan: an operational collection system by 31 December 2022; and to achieve a 90% return rate on cans by 2024.

Consumer-unfriendly set-up

"Achieving the 90% separate collection target means matching the best deposit systems in the world," said Eunomia, and people's participation ultimately determines whether the system will be a success or not. After comparing it with other successful deposit systems, Eunomia concludes that the plan of the Dutch Packaging Waste Fund is not sufficiently consumer-friendly to expect a 90% return rate. The fact that the customer can hand in his deposit bottles at the supermarket, but has to go somewhere else for his cans, makes the system less customer-friendly. The preference of 89% of Dutch consumers is to hand in their cans at the supermarket as well.

Collection points

The Dutch Packaging Waste Fund wants to collect in collection points at a maximum distance of 500 metres from the supermarkets. Eunomia estimates that consumers have to walk an extra 4 minutes at 20% of the supermarkets and at least 2 minutes at 40%. The 3,300 collection points that the Fund foresees are far below the number of collection points in deposit systems that achieve return rates of 90%. Where the Waste Fund provides 2.5 deposit machines and 1.9 collection points per 10,000 inhabitants, in Germany for example this is 5.3 deposit machines and 16 collection points respectively. In addition, EY Parthenon has already calculated in a study conducted in 2019 that around 12,000 collection locations at points of sale are needed to achieve a collection rate of 92-93%.

Deadline

Eunomia also examined whether the Waste Fund can roll out their plan by the start of the deposit on cans on 31 December 2022. The Waste Fund's system, with collection points at new locations not owned or controlled by retail outlets, presents exceptional challenges in terms of location, permits, installation, logistics and maintenance. It is therefore much more complex than the previous expansion into small plastic bottles. Eunomia: "It is clear that the deadline is 'very challenging' given the operational set-up of the proposal."

View Eunomia's full report: 'Deposit Return in the Netherlands'
Recyclingnetwerk.org