Knowledge articles

More about the packaging waste management levy

All businesses that produce more than 50,000 kg of packaging materials that end up in the Dutch market have to pay a waste management levy. In this article we will tell you more about the waste management levy and how we can help you in this.

Photo: Forbo Eurocol

Packaging Waste Fund

Packaging Waste Fund (Afvalfonds Verpakkingen) reimburses the costs incurred for collecting and recycling domestic packaging waste. These costs are paid from the levies imposed on packaging (the packaging waste management levy). All companies that bring packaged products onto the Dutch market pay this levy and, in doing so, contribute to the collection and recycling of packaging. Municipalities are free to decide how they organise the collection, sorting and recycling of the packaging waste.

Levy obligation

You are obliged to register and pay a packaging waste management levy, when in one calendar year you bring more than 50,000 kg of packaging onto the Dutch market also through discarding this amount from imports. The rates are based on what it costs in total to meet the statutory producer responsibility per material type: the net costs that a type of material causes in the chain of collection, processing and marketing minus the (positive or negative) yield. And general system costs, e.g. for monitoring, preventing litter and the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV). These are allocated proportionately per kilo over all material types.

Rate differentiation

As of 1 January 2022, the rates for plastic are EUR 0.70 per kilo excluding VAT for regular packaging and EUR 0.44 per kilo excluding VAT for easily recyclable packaging. The rate differentiation is intended to encourage the use of easily recyclable non-deformable plastic packaging, and thereby favour companies that use packaging with a positive market value after sorting. The KIDV Recycle Check for Non-Deformable Plastic Packaging assesses the extent to which packaging is recyclable.

Recycle check

Based on the KIDV Recycle Check rigid plastic packaging you can determine whether a plastic packaging is easily recyclable. The recycle check uses questions in a decision tree and we can already give you the following answers:

  • our packaging made from PET is not thermoformed PET packaging
  • much of our packaging is made from mono-materials
  • our packaging is free from oxo-degradable materials, unless indicated otherwise
  • our packaging is free from enclosed metals, unless indicated otherwise

We purchase responsible and sustainable packaging and lead the way in re-use and recycling. If you buy our products, you are assured of quality.

Johan van Vulpen, manager Purchasing at Houweling Group

Savings

If you want to save on the waste management levy, you can make other choices when it comes to:

  • type of material
  • format, weight and volume
  • label
  • use

Examples of this are:

  • Use of a packaging other than an opaque PET, CPET, PETG or thermoformed PET packaging.
  • Changing the model of a bucket so that this becomes lighter or falls precisely within the format requirement (larger than 5 cm and smaller than or equal to 5 litres product content).
  • Change in the format, the glue or type of material of a label.
  • Replacement of a label for a sleeve or in-mould label of the same material as the packaging.
  • Multiple use of the packaging instead of single use so that the packaging becomes a logistical tool.

For safe keeping

In addition to a saving on your waste management levy, recyclable packaging is of particular benefit to the environment. Do you want to know more about the possibilities that we offer and the sustainable benefits? Please feel free to contact us.