Anyone who throws away too much residual waste in the municipality of Meppel next year will pay for it. From 2027, residents will be allowed to throw away waste in underground containers a maximum of 145 times a year. Anyone who throws away their waste more often will have to pay extra.
Research conducted by the municipality shows that emptying waste into the containers 145 times is enough for more than 90 percent of residents. This amounts to approximately 2.5 times a week. The idea is that people who throw away waste more often pay 1.39 euros each time.
The municipality wants to introduce this to reduce the amount of waste. Meppel’s original ambition was to throw away 60 kilos of residual waste per inhabitant last year. That is far from being possible. Figures for last year are not yet available, but in 2024 it was about 160 kilos per inhabitant, and since 2020 it has actually increased slightly every year. The aim is now to achieve 100 kilos of waste per inhabitant.
“Many residents of Meppel separate their waste well. But we see that a small group of households actually offer a lot of residual waste,” says councilor Klaas de Vries (Sterk Meppel). “With this measure, we mainly want to reduce excessive use, without this having major consequences for most residents.”
What plays a role is the municipality’s expectation that incineration of residual waste will become more expensive in the coming years, partly due to the increase in a CO2 tax. This will mean that the waste tax that residents pay will increase if the same amount of waste is thrown away.
Currently, residents of the municipality of Meppel pay a fixed rate of tax every year for the collection and processing of their waste. The municipality prefers to stick to this and will therefore not switch to the diftar system, where everyone pays per kilo.
The municipality also wants to provide support to help residents better separate their waste and to prevent waste.
It is expected that these measures will lead to a reduction of approximately 20 kilos of residual waste per inhabitant. This does not mean that the target will be achieved, because it would mean a decrease from 160 to 140 kilograms per inhabitant.
“If the intended acceleration in residual waste reduction is insufficiently achieved, a more stringent measure may prove necessary in the long term,” the municipality writes. Then we will first look at ways to further reduce the use of underground containers, after which diftar may come into the picture.
