A year ago, Hof van Twente noticed that their waste bins in the outskirts of the municipality were always overflowing to the edges. The bins were also outdated and needed to be replaced, but there was no budget for this. The small municipality in Overijssel then came up with a striking solution: it decided to largely remove the rubbish bins in the area. Hikers and other visitors would be encouraged to take their own waste home, where they could separate it immediately.
It sounds contradictory, but this plan by Hof van Twente is not uncommon in the Netherlands. In recent years, several municipalities and provinces have followed the example of nature managers such as Staatsbosbeheer and Natuurmonumenten.
In most nature areas that they manage there are few or no waste bins to be found. This is one of the ways they try to prevent litter in the Netherlands. According to Staatsbosbeheer, it is estimated that 50 to 300 million kilos of litter can be found in Dutch nature every year.
Waste attracts waste
“Waste does not belong in nature. Even if waste is in a rubbish bin, it can be blown into nature or birds can take it out to build nests. That is why we ask our visitors to take their own waste home with them. Fortunately, most people do this too,” says a spokesperson for Natuurmonumenten.
“On top of that, we simply don’t have enough people to empty garbage cans in all our areas. You have to do that several times a day if you want to prevent them from filling up.” Trash cans would therefore, if they were there, fill up too quickly. This causes problems. “Waste attracts waste,” says Staatsbosbeheer.
“When a rubbish bin is full, people often put their rubbish next to the bin. This often ends up in nature and has to be cleaned up by volunteers.” Staatsbosbeheer and Natuurmonumenten therefore see that there is less litter in their areas when the waste bins are simply not there.
Pollution standard
Cameron Brick, lecturer in environmental psychology at the University of Amsterdam, understands that full rubbish bins attract more rubbish. “When rubbish bins are overflowing and there is rubbish around them, a norm has emerged that people can leave rubbish here. Others are then more inclined to follow this.”
Litter clearly shows how much people like to imitate each other. According to Brick, there is a lot of evidence for this in psychology. “In countries like Japan, for example, there are hardly any waste bins on the street. Yet it is very clean. People there are used to taking their rubbish home with them,” he says. “Everyone can basically learn this.”
In Hof van Twente, residents seem to have become quite accustomed to the lack of waste bins a year later. The municipality has had only a few reports of litter since the major removal. There have, however, been some waste dumps, such as a number of chairs recently. But, these would not have fit in the waste bins either, a spokesman argues. It therefore has nothing to do with the presence of waste bins.
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