#Inspectorate #announces #penalty #companies #collect #bottles #Economy
Dec 21, 2023 at 10:53 AM Update: 24 minutes ago
Companies collect far too few plastic bottles. Instead of the agreed 90 percent, only 68 percent of plastic bottles were returned in 2022. The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate is critical of improvement plans and has therefore announced a penalty.
The Inspectorate’s reprimand is addressed to the Packaging Waste Fund, a collaboration of companies such as supermarkets, which, among other things, must ensure the collection of plastic bottles and, since this year, cans with a deposit.
In September, the companies received a warning because they had not achieved the collection target for 2022. They were in violation of this, because that collection goal is laid down by law.
At the beginning of December, the Waste Fund came up with a plan to improve in the coming years. For example, it proposes to create 5,400 additional collection points by the end of 2026, on top of the 4,100 that already exist. This mainly concerns deposit machines for cans and bottles. These must appear in supermarkets, but also outside them.
Too little will also be collected in the coming years
But the Inspectorate reacts negatively to the plan, because it will take until the end of 2026 before these additional measures are taken. The Waste Fund will therefore not achieve the collection target of 90 percent in 2023, 2024 and 2025. “That is not acceptable,” the Inspectorate wrote in a statement. “Implementation of plans takes time, but there is insufficient substantiation as to why this should last until the end of 2026.”
The Inspectorate announces that it is imposing a penalty as an incentive to implement the plans on time. This means that the Waste Fund must ensure that there are at least 700 extra deposit machines in supermarkets and 1,900 extra machines outside them before the beginning of 2026.
And there are still 2,800 collection points to be created for returning bottles. If this is not possible, the Waste Fund will receive a penalty for each collection point that is not realized. The Inspectorate does not say what amounts this involves.
The companies must also launch broad public campaigns over the next three years to inform consumers about returning deposit packaging.
‘Behavior change takes time’
In response to the Inspectorate’s decision, the Waste Fund stated that it would also like to achieve that 90 percent. “But behavioral change among consumers takes time,” says a spokesperson.
According to the Waste Fund, countries such as Norway and Denmark needed eight years to reach that 90 percent.
