How Litterati Data Helped the Netherlands to Expand Their Deposit-Return Scheme & Better Handle Their Plastic Waste

CONTEXT

The Netherlands had a plastic bottle deposit return scheme running but lacked insight into how effective it was. As of early 2020, efforts to combat small plastic bottle (less than 1L) litter had not been successful.

CHALLENGE

How can you gain insight into the efficacy of litter-related programs & measurably drive improved performance over time?

LITTERATI SOLUTION

The entire Litterati community present in the Netherlands played a vital role in collecting & correctly labelling data that was then used and shared with the authorities by a key member, Dirk Groot popularly known as Zwerfinator. The Dutch government was urged to rethink the deposit-return scheme.

CONCLUSION

In May 2020, the Netherlands announced an expansion of their program to offer a deposit-return incentive of 15 cents on all plastic bottles smaller than 1L. This program expansion came into effect in July 2021.

The Dutch government also indicated that the program would expand even further to include aluminum Cans if the total cans found litter had not reduced by 2022.

The government had been debating these program expansions for years and were finally able to come to a conclusion they were confident in because it was backed by verified data on their country’s litter outcomes.