Many residents have questions about the nwaste and raw materials policy, waste separation and waste charges. This is understandable. That is why you will find answers to frequently asked questions on waste charges here.
Do you have another question? Ask us your question. We will do our best to answer your question to the best of our ability. And you help complete this list of frequently asked questions right away.
With the introduction of the policy plan, you have been able to influence part of the waste collection fee since 1 January 2024. A part is fixed and a part is variable. This varying part is called the recycling rate. It is a new way of calculating waste charges. Do you separate raw materials well and have little residual waste? Then your costs will be lower than if you have a lot of residual waste.
This does not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden. This municipality will decide later on the introduction of the recycling tariff.
Your municipality determines the amount of the waste collection fee, i.e. the fixed part and the recycling fee. The municipality takes into account, for example, people with a lot of medical waste, litter pickers and those with insufficient income.
The recycling fee is the amount you pay to your local council for every time you dispose of residual waste in the residual waste collection container. If you live in the outlying area, you pay the recycling fee for every time you have the chipped grey residual waste container emptied. The more often you dispose of residual waste, the more you pay. It is the recycling part of the waste collection fee.
So you do not pay per kilo (i.e. not for the weight), but per time you present residual waste. The waste disposal fee therefore consists of a fixed rate and a variable component. The fixed rate is the same for all residents in your municipality. You can influence the variable part by separating your waste properly.
This does not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden. This municipality will decide later on the introduction of the recycling tariff.
Your municipality sets the amount of the waste collection charge, i.e. the fixed rate and the recycling rate on residual waste. The municipality considers people with a lot of medical waste, litter pickers and those with insufficient income. More information can be found on your municipality's website.
Diftar is the abbreviation for a waste system with differentiated tariffs (different rates). The elaboration differs per municipality. The recycling tariff is a kind of diftar, specifically for residual waste. It means you pay per time you dispose of residual waste. Different municipalities use different names, but the idea is the same: the more often you throw away residual waste, the more you pay.
The recycling fee for residual waste is designed to encourage people to separate their waste better. This will leave less residual waste, which is better for the environment and prevents the cost of incinerating waste from increasing. The aim is to recycle as much waste as possible and use fewer new materials. This is better for the environment and your wallet.
Experience in other municipalities shows that the target of 100 kilograms per inhabitant per year is not achievable without the introduction of a recycling fee. Almost all municipalities that currently have less than 100 kilograms per inhabitant per year of residual waste have introduced a recycling tariff for this purpose. Examples in our region are the municipalities in the Betuwe (AVRI municipalities), the municipality of Altena and the Hoeksche Waard (RAD).
Where we use the term recycling rate, other municipalities sometimes call it a varying rate.
These municipalities introduced the recycling tariff because it helps reduce residual waste and recycle more raw materials. In big cities like Utrecht and Amsterdam, separating waste is more difficult, especially because of many flats and flats. That's why they sometimes discontinue this system. But in our region, it works well. More and more municipalities choose the recycling tariff for residual waste because of its good results.
The municipalities of Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden introduced the recycling tariff for residual waste on 1 January 2024.
The Vijfheerenlanden municipality has not yet decided if and when the recycling tariff for residual waste will be introduced.
Every household pays waste levy annually. This levy consists of two parts:
Residents in Vijfheerenlanden municipality are not affected by any part of the waste collection levy. They pay the municipality a higher fixed waste collection charge per household per year.
Your municipality determines the amount of the waste disposal charges, i.e. the fixed rate and the recycling rate for residual waste. These differ per municipality. You can find the amount of the waste collection fee and the recycling fee for residual waste on your municipality's website.
Municipalities publish the rates on the municipal website:
Each year at the end of the year, municipalities set the rates for the following year.
For the fixed part, your municipality looks at how big your household is.
For the alternate part - the recycling rate for residual waste - your local council looks at your living situation and which container for residual waste you use.
More information on waste charges and the recycling rate for residual waste can be found on your municipality's website.
It looks at how often you dispose of residual waste because the collection containers do not have a weighing system. It is too expensive and difficult to modify the containers. Therefore, we record the number of times residual waste has been thrown away with an environmental card.
If you keep throwing away small bags of residual waste, consider saving them until you have a larger bag full. You can put smaller bags in a larger bag or bin (60 litres) and take it away when it is full. You can also make arrangements with your neighbours to take turns disposing of residual waste together.
Every time you dispose of residual waste in the collection container, you must scan your environmental pass. This is how we register how often you dispose of residual waste at your home address. If you live in an outlying area and have a residual waste container at your home, we scan the chip in the container when we empty it. This is how we keep track of how often we have emptied the container in front of your home address.
The environmental pass has a chip with a unique number linked to your home address. There is no personal information on the pass. The environmental pass belongs to the house. That is why you leave the environmental pass in the house when you go move.
Your 2025 assessment will also show how many times you offered residual waste in 2024. If, in your opinion, the number is not correct, you can lodge an objection with your municipality's tax organisation.
If there is a breakdown and the lid does not open, no charge will be made. In case of a malfunction, do not put your rubbish bag next to the container, but try another collection container nearby. Or take the rubbish bag home again and try again later, when the fault has been cleared. Putting rubbish next to the container is not allowed. The cost is €206.50 per offence.
It is always nice if you want to report a malfunction or other problem with a collection container, so we can fix it. When reporting, please provide the number of the container. Use the Waardlanden app or go to waardlanden.nl/notifications to report a malfunction or problem.
You were unable to put your bin bag in the container, but your environmental pass was scanned, because you opened the lid and heard the 'click'? Then do within five working days A request to check a failed failure at our customer contact centre. Our customer contact centre staff can have your failed offer checked and, if necessary, corrected in the registration system. A request for verification of a potentially failed deposit can be made within five working days at waardlanden.nl/self-regulation.
You will find the bill for waste disposal charges on the municipal tax assessment. You will receive this from your municipality. You will receive it in the first quarter of the year. The assessment notice states the amount for the fixed part of the waste disposal charges for the coming year. And in Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden the costs for residual waste (the recycling rate) for the past year.
Example:
In early 2025, you will receive the assessment for the 2024 residual waste plus the 2025 fixed part.
In Vijfheerenlanden, you will receive a higher 2025 waste levy assessment. You are not affected by any part of the waste levy.
Besides the recycling fee for residual waste, you also pay a flat fee. With this, your municipality pays all waste costs. Such as the costs for collecting, transporting and processing your VGF, PMD, paper and glass and the costs for the waste recycling points. And also other costs that differ per municipality. For more information, please contact your municipality.
Waardlanden's tariff has been indexed. The increase in waste disposal charges has more reasons than just the indexation of Waardlanden's tariff. This is because we see that the waste disposal charges can differ across municipalities and also vary in percentage terms.
The way a municipality allocates waste disposal costs can vary depending on municipal policies and choices to pass on costs. In many cases, municipalities have the freedom to determine which specific costs they do or do not include in the waste disposal levy, and how they pass these costs on to residents and businesses. This can lead to differences in the amount of the charge between different municipalities, even if the underlying cost structure is similar. For more information on this, please contact your municipality.
You can keep your residual waste costs down by avoiding waste and separating it properly. The less residual waste you have left, the less often you throw it away and the lower the costs will be. You have no influence on the fixed part of the waste charges.
Do you have medical waste due to a chronic illness or disability? If so, you may be eligible for compensation. Contact your municipality for more information on the compensation scheme for medical waste in your municipality.
Residents of Vijfheerenlanden only pay a fixed waste collection fee and have no influence on the cost of residual waste.
It is possible to apply for an exception for paying the recycling fee. Many municipalities offer schemes for people with a lot of medical waste, litter pickers and people with insufficient income, for example. Contact your municipality for more information on these schemes.
Do you disagree with the waste collection fee and your number of registered offers of residual waste on your tax assessment? If so, you can lodge an objection with your municipality's tax organisation. On your municipality's website, you will find information on how and within what period you can file an objection.
If you do not agree with the number of deposits, because it does not correspond to what you have kept yourself, you can lodge an objection to the waste collection charge with your municipality. On your municipality's website, you will find information on how and within what timeframe you can object.
Although waste charges are rising, it is important to avoid waste and separate it properly. The higher costs come from, for example, rising processing costs and higher taxes to burn residual waste. It is also becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to properly recycle waste such as gft, pmd and paper, as it contains more pollution. Even though you cannot do anything about rising costs and inflation, by separating your waste properly, you help make recycling more efficient and reduce costs. So your contribution is important for the environment and helps keep costs manageable.
In other municipalities where a recycling fee for residual waste has been in place for many years, this appears to be working well. Figures from Rijkswaterstaat show that municipalities where residents pay for residual waste have less residual waste and more waste is separated there. The system also raises awareness about the impact of waste on the environment, costs and the recycling of raw materials.
Yes, our inspectors check whether you separate your waste properly. Since 3 July 2023, we have been checking the contents of the pmd and VGF containers to improve the quality of separated waste. If there is the wrong waste in the container, you will receive a yellow card as a warning. If most of the container is wrongly filled, you will receive a red card and we will not empty the container until the wrong waste is taken out.
Yes, there are. These are also proposed in the strategy paper, such as additional containers for glass and paper in the district, provision of a small kitchen GFT bin and additional education on the usefulness and necessity of waste separation. These measures alone are not enough to fulfil the circular ambitions.
Yes, a large number of municipalities have successfully introduced recycling pricing, also known as rate differentiation or diftar, in recent years. The result: people separate their waste better and the amount of residual waste is reduced. This is studied annually and published in a "Household Waste Benchmark" report. For example, the most recent benchmark shows that diftar municipalities have remarkably less residual waste and lower costs than municipalities that have not applied diftar. Across the entire benchmark, diftar municipalities have 46 per cent less residual waste and 21 per cent lower management costs than non-diftar municipalities. 'Without tariff differentiation, it is practically impossible to reduce the amount of residual waste below 100 kg per inhabitant. All 39 municipalities in the benchmark that met the 100 kg target introduced some form of tariff differentiation,' the report concludes.
Experience in other municipalities that have introduced a recycling tariff shows that this can be a temporary problem. Once residents get used to the new tariff system, bag dumping decreases, usually after about 3 months. Good education on waste separation (what belongs where) and explanations on how to ensure less residual waste helps to get it right. As a result, fewer people will dump waste. That is why our environmental coaches and supervisors are ready to inform and help residents to reduce residual waste and separate even better where necessary. This is how we work together with residents towards a clean and waste-free region.
Some residents of neighbouring municipalities now brought their residual waste to the free-access residual waste collection containers and environmental centres in our municipalities. Because the residual waste collection containers are now closed with a pass system and the recycling fee has been introduced, our municipalities are connected to how neighbouring municipalities do it. Waste tourism has decreased as a result.
By introducing a recycling fee and closing the collection containers, we will also counter abuse by business owners. They will no longer benefit financially by throwing their waste in the collection containers for free.
It should be cleaned up as soon as possible, after investigation (enforcement) has taken place. Incidentally, the experience of other municipalities is that waste dumping almost never leads to unmanageable situations. In practice, therefore, these negative effects of a recycling tariff are not so bad.
Illegal waste dumping unfortunately always occurs and cannot be prevented. However, it is important to clear them as soon as possible, after an investigation (enforcement) has taken place. This way, we counteract copycat behaviour. People add waste if they see that something is already there.
Incidentally, the experience of other municipalities is that waste dumping almost never leads to unmanageable situations. In practice, therefore, these negative effects of a recycling tariff are not so bad.
If we assume the equality principle, every litre of residual waste costs the same. It does not matter whether you present this waste in a container or a collection container.
Thus, according to the equity principle, a 60-litre waste deposit in a neighbourhood container should be one-fourth the rate of offering a 240-litre container.
No, 3 different recycling rates apply in Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Molenlanden municipalities: for high-rise buildings, for low-rise buildings and for the outlying area.
Residents of high-rise buildings are more likely to offer rubbish bags than residents of low-rise buildings. These have containers for pmd, paper/cardboard and VGF at their homes. Residents of flats, flats and upstairs dwellings pay a lower rate per bin bag deposited in the residual waste collection container than residents who have containers at their homes.
The municipalities determine the waste disposal charges, i.e. the fixed part and the recycling charges. For more information on waste charges, please contact your municipality.
The recycling tariff will not apply to residents of Vijfheerenlanden in 2024. This municipality will decide later on the introduction of the recycling tariff.
Paying per kilo is technically more complicated and therefore more expensive to buy and maintain. Costs you pay as a resident. Also, collection containers with a weighing system malfunction more often. That is why the choice was made to pay per bin bag or residual waste container emptied.
Furthermore, paying per time is less prone to abuse. If someone else throws waste into a residual waste container at the time it is on the street, this does not affect the amount you have to pay. This is because the waste is not weighed.
For example, as long as nappies still have to go with residual waste, the recycling rate will lead to additional costs. The question is whether this is reasonable. Households with babies have the extra nappy waste for a certain period and there is a conscious choice behind it. That does not apply to those with medical waste.
For these residents, the extra residual waste is indefinite. And it is not a conscious choice. Many municipalities that have introduced a recycling tariff therefore compensate this target group, for instance by not charging them for some residual waste offers.
For more information on schemes under the target group policy, contact your municipality.
Of course, litter pickers should not have to pay to throw away litter that has been picked up. Therefore, as a litter picker, you can apply for a special litter pass. With this pass, you can open the waste collection containers free of charge to dispose of shredded litter, at no cost to you. You only pay for your own household residual waste. Send an e-mail to milieucoach@waardlanden.nl. Our environmental coaches will process your application. You will then receive an application form and the terms of use for the litter pass.
