Plastic bottle experiment in Haarlem city centre

Although there has recently been a deposit on PET bottles, many bottles still disappear into the rubbish bin.

Since deposits (15 euro cents) on small bottles were introduced in 2021, many have already disappeared from street litter, but there is still room for improvement. Litter specialist Dirk Groot ‘the Zwerfinator’ found an average of 8.4 plastic bottles per kilometre until 2021. By 2022, that had dropped to 2.5 plastic bottles per kilometre.

Every year, 900 million small plastic bottles pass over the counter.

This is why the municipality has started a trial in Kenaupark. At the waste bins there, an orange ‘donation rack’ has recently been hanging on the outside. In it, people can put small deposit bottles. Others can collect the bottles and collect the deposit.

More racks at the railway station and in the city centre will follow soon.