News item | 17-01-2025 | 2:45 PM
The government will initiate tailor-made discussions with companies with waste incineration plants. State Secretary Jansen (Infrastructure and Water Management) and Minister Hermans (Climate and Green Growth) reported this in a letter to the House of Representatives. Waste incinerators play an important role in waste management, but are also major emitters of CO2 and other environmental pollutants such as nitrogen. They therefore have a major impact on our living environment.
The government wants to help companies become more sustainable in the Netherlands with tailor-made agreements. This involves reducing CO2 and nitrogen emissions and contributing to a clean living environment and a circular economy. €222 million has been reserved in the Multi-Year Climate Fund Program for the customized agreements with waste incinerators. Initially, discussions will be set up with two companies. The first waste incinerators that the cabinet will discuss are AEB (Amsterdam) and AVR (Rotterdam and Duiven).
Vision on waste incineration
The policy vision on waste incineration, which was also sent to the House of Representatives today, will serve as a basis for the tailor-made discussions. This new vision is necessary because of the pursuit of resource conservation, the goal of achieving climate neutrality and newly available technologies.
State Secretary Jansen: “The Netherlands is working towards a circular economy in 2050. That is an economy in which we use materials and raw materials sparingly and reuse them as much as possible. This is also important because we want to be less dependent on other countries for our raw materials. It would then be a shame to burn those raw materials. That is why we want to burn less and less and recycle more and more in the coming years. Waste incinerators also emit harmful substances such as CO2 and nitrogen. The tailor-made agreements contribute to reducing these emissions.”
Minister Hermans: “We are already working with the largest industrial emitters to reduce CO2 and nitrogen emissions and improve the living environment through tailor-made agreements. It is good that we are now extending this approach to waste incineration plants. I think it is important that we make all industrial processes in the Netherlands more sustainable. With tailor-made solutions we show that sustainability can and must happen here. In this way we retain companies for the Netherlands and contribute to a sustainable future.”
Waste incineration remains necessary
Waste incineration will not disappear anytime soon: it remains necessary for certain waste flows, for example if recycling is not (yet) possible, for the destruction of certain contaminants (such as substances of very high concern) and for ethical reasons (such as medical waste).
Waste incineration plants also supply energy to industry and, especially heat, to households. However, it is expected that the role of waste incineration, both for our waste processing and energy supply, will become increasingly smaller in the future. This is due to better product design, better collection and waste separation and the availability of other processing techniques. As a result, more will be reused and recycled and less incinerated in the future.