Abstract
Plastic entering the environment is a growing threat for ecosystems. We estimate the annual mass of known Dutch plastic waste generated and littered and where it ends up. We use two methods: (1) a material flow analysis of plastic waste separately collected from 13 economic sectors (including households, industry and imports) and estimate the amount sent to processing plants or exported and (2) a mismanagement model from observations of litter (on Dutch beaches and riverbanks) plus estimates of inadequately managed exported plastic scraps entering the environment abroad. In 2017 (the most recent complete data set available), an estimate of 1990 (±111) kilotonnes [kt] of plastic waste was separately collected. The top three plastic waste generating sectors (74% of the total) were households, clothing and textiles, and importation. Our mismanagement model estimates that 4.3-21.2 kt enters the environment annually; almost all of which occurs in foreign countries after inadequate management of imported Dutch waste. We highlight unknowns, including the source and/or destination of imported (623 kt) and exported (514 kt) plastics, plastics in non-household mixed waste streams and the plastic fraction of some separately collected waste, for example, e-waste. Our results stress the need for improved monitoring and reporting of plastic waste. Beyond the Netherlands, our recommendations could also help other high-income countries' decision-makers reach their circular economy goals.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 27-40 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Waste Management and Research |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 16 Jul 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: DL and LS received seed funding from Utrecht University’s Circular Economy and Society hub. EvS and MK were part of the ‘Tracking of Plastic in Our Seas’ (TOPIOS) project, supported through funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 715386). The work of TvE was supported by the Veni Research Program, the River Plastic Monitoring Project with project number 18211, which was (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). KLL received funding from the March Marine Initiative, a project of March Limited in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Funding
We would also like to send out a huge thanks to the large team of volunteers from Stichting de Noordzee (the North Sea Foundation) and Schone Rivieren (Clean Rivers) for the data that our mismanagement model was based on. We would like to thank Thomas Hartman for his incredible work for our Figure 3 schematic (THIS Illustrations). Finally, we thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved our manuscript. We would like to extend our thanks to the experts we interviewed who kindly provided reports, contacts and/or information required for our analysis: Enno Christan, ILT/Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate; Ilse I. van der Grift, NVRD (Royal Dutch solid waste Organisation); Maikel Kishna, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency; Theo Stijnen, PlasticsEurope NL; Marloes Holzhauer, Rijkswaterstaat Water, Verkeer en Leefomgeving; Marijke Boonstra, Stichting de Noordzee (The North Sea Foundation); Janet Kes, ARN (Auto Recycling Nederland); WeCycle/Stichting OPEN; Ben Kras, Kras Recycling; de Paauw Recycling B.V. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: DL and LS received seed funding from Utrecht University’s Circular Economy and Society hub. EvS and MK were part of the ‘Tracking of Plastic in Our Seas’ (TOPIOS) project, supported through funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 715386). The work of TvE was supported by the Veni Research Program, the River Plastic Monitoring Project with project number 18211, which was (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). KLL received funding from the March Marine Initiative, a project of March Limited in Hamilton, Bermuda. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: DL and LS received seed funding from Utrecht University’s Circular Economy and Society hub. EvS and MK were part of the ‘Tracking of Plastic in Our Seas’ (TOPIOS) project, supported through funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 715386). The work of TvE was supported by the Veni Research Program, the River Plastic Monitoring Project with project number 18211, which was (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). KLL received funding from the March Marine Initiative, a project of March Limited in Hamilton, Bermuda.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate | |
| ILT | |
| Maikel Kishna | |
| March Marine Initiative | |
| Marloes Holzhauer | |
| NVRD | |
| North Sea Foundation | |
| Rijkswaterstaat Water | |
| Schone Rivieren | |
| Stichting de Noordzee | |
| Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 715386, 18211 |
| American River Nutrition | |
| European Research Council | |
| Universiteit Utrecht | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | |
| Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving |
Keywords
- Material flow analysis
- Netherlands
- mismanagement
- plastic pollution
- plastic waste
- waste management
