Waste Management theme: Dutch policy

The National Waste Management Plan came into effect in late 2002 (VROM, 2002). In this plan, the government describes the waste policy for the next four years, and looks forward to 2012.

Disposal will now be known as Waste management

The Waste Management theme replaces the Disposal theme. Waste management includes the entire chain of waste segregation at source, collection, transport, storage, processing, recovery and removal. The prevention of waste precedes waste management and is therefore not formally covered by the term. The policy for this area is discussed as part of this theme. See the Prevention chapter in the National Waste Management Plan.

New definitions in the National Waste Management Plan

The Ministry uses new terms and definitions in the National Waste Management Plan for dealing with waste. They are better adapted to European regulations than the old terms. Important changes include:

the term 'disposal' (the total chain) has been replaced by 'management' or 'waste management';
the term 'final disposal', mainly incineration in a waste incinerator and landfill, has been replaced by 'disposal';
the term 'recovery' is now the umbrella term for reuse, recycling and the use of waste principally as fuel. This is justified by an amendment to the Environmental Management Act in May 2002.

The definition above means that recovery is broader than reuse. Alongside reuse (for example returnable glass) and recycling (such as one-way glass, paper, metals), recovery now also includes the use of waste principally as fuel. This involves, for example, use as fuel in cement kilns and in power plants and the incineration in their own facilities by industrial and manufacturing companies in the industry target sector (in so far as that includes energy extraction). To date, such applications have been classified as 'incineration'.
The concept of discharging waste to surface water will also apply to the discharge of treated water separated during the processing of liquid waste streams (such as ship-generated waste). Until now, the Ministry used the term 'discharge' to describe the actual discharge of a waste substance into surface water. At the end of the nineties, incidentally, this was confined exclusively to phosphogypsum, a waste stream from the fertiliser industry, discharges of which stopped in 2000.

Consequences of the new definitions for data about waste management

With the Chemicals, Safety and Radiation Protection Directorate of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, it has been agreed that we will continue to use the old terminology and definitions in this Environmental Data Compendium for figures about reuse, incineration, landfill and discharge.

Lansink's Ladder

The waste policy follows a hierarchy in waste management, which corresponds broadly to 'Lansink's Ladder' (named after the proposer of the motion passed unanimously by the Dutch Lower House in 1979). The hierarchy is as follows:

waste prevention (highest priority);
the highest possible quality of recovery. In so far as recovery in the form of reuse or recycling is not possible, high priority is given to using the energy content of waste by using it (after post-separation) as fuel in installations with high energy yields;
incineration as a form of disposal, using the energy generated;
landfill (the least desirable processing method).

Policy objectives 2012

The National Waste Management Plan (VROM, 2002) states, as the objectives for 2012:

increasing the relative unlinking that has already been achieved of the gross domestic product and the total waste supply by continuing and intensifying the prevention policy;
increasing the level of waste recovery to 83% in 2012;
limiting the amount of waste for disposal to 9.5 billion kg, of which 2 billion kg will be waste destined for landfill.