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NGOs’ recommendations on plastic policy for the new Cabinet
31 January 2022
Dear Ms Heijnen,
Congratulations on your appointment as State Secretary of Infrastructure and Water Management. It is a fine portfolio that includes the essential mandate of progressing the transition to a circular economy. One of the urgent issues in this theme is plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is internationally recognised as one of the world’s major environmental problems. Despite this, the word ‘plastic’ does not appear even once in the Coalition Agreement.
In this letter we, a coalition of nature and environmental organisations, would like to share the points that we believe the new Cabinet should prioritise to deal with the plastic crisis. We hope that this will help you present an ambitious plastic policy quickly and decisively.
Health threat
Plastic pollution poses a health threat to humans and animals. The enormous increase in plastic production and its consequential pollution has rapidly grown into a worldwide environmental problem with numerous adverse effects. It causes biodiversity loss, damages ecosystems and contributes to climate change.
Large-scale plastic production and consumption do not fit in a healthy and circular economy. The current policy, that is mostly directed at recycling and is based on voluntarism, appears to be inadequate in reducing plastic production, consumption and pollution.
To avoid irreparable damage to the environment and our health, ambitious and decisive plastic policies need to be developed at national and international level. The Dutch Government has the responsibility and the duty to protect the health of humans and the environment through legislation and regulations that:
- bring about a clear reduction in the production and use of plastic, and in particular virgin plastic;
- promote recycling, but only when it can be done safely;
- emphasise reuse;
- prevent plastic waste in the environment by expanding deposit systems.
The next few years are critical. The time to act is now. We request you to take the required action to safeguard the health of our planet for current and future generations.
Crucial points of attention
To achieve the above goals, the signatory organisations wish to draw your attention to the following points.
1. Take control
To date, the Netherlands has tried to address the plastic crisis by making voluntary agreements with companies and sectors. Unfortunately they have not had much effect and this is leading to uncertainties and unnecessary delay. The Plastic Pact (in Dutch) is a good example of this. The signatory organisations believe that clear and binding legislation and regulations are necessary to break the impasse and to make up for the damage done.
Almost all legal measures up to now have come about because of European policy. If the Netherlands wants to have a leading role in making the EU greener (Coalition Agreement 2021-2025, p. 37), the Government needs to take more initiative. This also applies to the role of the Netherlands in the United Nations. As one of the 80 member states that signed the Oceans Day Plastic Pollution Declaration, the Dutch Government needs to take an active role internationally in making legal agreements to reduce plastic consumption worldwide. The emphasis here must be on prevention, reduction and reuse above recycling and cleaning up. Guaranteeing the health of humans and the environment must take precedence.
2. Ensure a real circular economy
To bring about a circular economy, it is imperative to look at the entire life cycle of products. Circular design does not only mean that products can be recycled better, but that products last longer, can be reused and lose as few microplastics possible during their life cycle. There are a few important points here.
- The products that make up most of the litter should be banned. This means extending the Single Use Plastics (SUP) list of banned plastic products that are unnecessary and/or that can be replaced by other reusable materials. These include plastic cigarette filters, wet wipes etc.
- Emphasis must be placed on prevention and reuse. Using plastic just once must be severely limited. Recycling is all too often presented as the solution, but it does not reduce pollution and barely reduces the wider environmental impact. By anchoring reuse in environmental policy, litter can be prevented and the use of virgin plastic drastically cut. A strong plastic soft drink bottle can be reused about forty times before needing to be recycled (this is already being done in countries like Germany). To reduce the use of single-use plastic, efforts need to be put into refill systems and limiting the packaging of fruit and vegetables in supermarkets. The French law (in French) against wastage and for the circular economy is an inspirational example of this.
- A deposit system is an extremely suitable means to facilitate and achieve a transition to reuse. By giving value to packaging, it is returned and can be reused by consumers. The deposit system works. It has a proven large, positive environmental impact and must be extended to all drink packaging: glass, plastic, can and drink cartons, regardless of the contents.
- Standards need to be set for recycling to reduce the climate impact and the presence of chemical substances. Plastic products should have a mandatory percentage of recyclates and a levy on virgin plastic to make sure that raw materials are retained in the chain longer. If virgin plastic would be more expensive, it would be more attractive for producers to use recyclates. This would have a positive impact on the climate as less fossil fuels would be needed to produce new plastic. Legislation and regulations are needed to guarantee high quality and safe recyclates and to avoid downcycling and dumping.
- The Dutch Government can and should make maximum effort to prevent microplastic pollution and safeguard the health of humans and the environment. By introducing high product standards, unnecessary exposure to microplastics through products such as textiles or cosmetics can be prevented. This can be done by supporting European legislation and promoting far reaching measures. Furthermore, permits should no longer be granted that permit the dumping of microplastics in the environment (as was the case with Chemelot), and strict controls and enforcement need to be introduced so that nurdle spills are a thing of the past.
- Litter is one of society’s greatest irritations and hundreds of thousands of people in the Netherlands take action to clean it up. The problem is being mapped at an ever larger scale through citizen science. To take effective action at the source of the litter, it is important to know how much, what kind, where and why the litter is there. The Government should therefore invest in a national monitoring programme for river litter monitoring and citizen science in the Dutch delta. To financially support this type of initiative, possibly through a fund, independent valuable information on litter can be supplied to government bodies such as Rijkswaterstaat.
3. Let the polluter pay
While the Netherlands has extended producer responsibility (EPR) for various product groups, it appears to be relatively easy for manufacturers to pass off the environmental damage of their products or to pass on the costs in the price of their products. The current legislation and regulations do not adequately hold producers responsible for the environmental damage that they cause. Through awareness raising campaigns and supporting clean-ups, they often pass on their responsibility to consumers.
It is important to hold companies liable for the whole life cycle of their products. A wide application of the EPR is needed that not only includes the end phase of products, but also the production and usage phases. The EPR needs to be applied more smartly, such as through eco-modulation, so that the most polluting companies incur the highest costs and companies with real sustainable solutions the least. This financial stimulus will encourage companies to make more sustainable products that last longer and that can be reused, are better recyclable, and cause less microplastic shedding.
We are seriously concerned about the effects of plastic pollution on the environment and on human health. Effective policy can ensure that these effects are limited. There is a strong need to change course and effectuate systems change in all areas through legislation.
The signatory environmental organisations invite you to discuss this with us.
We wish you all the best in your new function.
Kind regards,
Maria Westerbos
Director Plastic Soup Foundation
Oskar de Roos
Plastic Lead WWF-NL
Rob Buurman
Director Recycling Network Benelux
Merijn Tinga
Plastic Soup Surfer
Albert Jaap van Santbrink
Director The North Sea Foundation, Clean Rivers partner
Jelle de Jong
Director IVN Nature Education, Clean Rivers partner
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