On 1 January 2014, the deposits available for PET bottles in The Netherlands will be scrapped in favour of curbside and public recycling. A relevant agreement was reached in March between the Dutch Association of Municipalities (VNG, The Hague / The Netherlands; www.vng-international.nl) and packaging producers. The deal was brokered by Joop Atsma, state secretary for infrastructure and environment.

Under the terms of the arrangement, VNG will receive EUR 20m to address potential litter problems associated with the dropping of the fee. While the charge will only be cancelled in 2014 – allowing consumers enough time to get familiar with the new arrangement – the parties agreed to launch a series of measures to encourage recycling by January 2013. They include a rise in the recycling of PET soft drink bottles, a reduction in PVC packaging, a reduction of plastic bags handed out in shops, as well as cutting down on plastic packaging.

The measures, said to meet the specifications of German recycling group DKR (Cologne; www.dkr.de) or similar accepted certified standards, are expected to yield PET recycling rates of 44% in 2013. That percentage is predicted to rise by 2% each year, reaching a total of 52% in 2017. By 2018, the document outlined by both parties states, the reuse rate of small PET bottles should average 23%, while that of large PET bottles is expected to reach 28%.