Key Takeaways
Keeping waste rules straight in the Netherlands can feel confusing, especially in a shared house in a town like Appingedam. This article follows a small, real situation with just seven empty glass bottles and a few plastic ones and shows how Dutch bins, glass containers and deposit money actually work. The focus is on clear, simple guidance that matches local rules in December 2025 and helps anyone avoid stress about fines while doing the right thing for recycling.
Story & Details
A small pile of bottles, a big set of questions
On a checked yellow blanket in a room in Appingedam, seven empty glass bottles sit in a neat row. Some are green, some are clear. Beer brands are visible. They are clean, harmless and yet feel like a problem.
The resident lives in a staff house in the northern Netherlands. The employer pays the local waste tax, so there is no direct bill for rubbish. Even so, the resident wants to know two simple things. Is there any money to get back for these bottles? And could a fine arrive if they end up in the wrong bin?
Deposit money: when a bottle is worth cash
In the Netherlands many drink containers carry a small deposit called statiegeld. When someone buys a drink, a few extra cents are added to the price. The money comes back only if the empty container is returned through a special machine or counter.
The modern system covers large and small plastic bottles and metal cans for water, soft drinks, beer and many other drinks. The usual deposit is 15 cents for small plastic bottles and cans and 25 cents for large plastic bottles, while refillable glass beer bottles often have their own fixed amount.[1][2][5][6]
The key point is simple: a bottle has deposit money only if its label shows the official statiegeld logo and a clear amount. Statiegeld Nederland, the national organisation that runs the system, requires producers to print this logo on all registered deposit bottles and cans.[5] A beer brand on its own does not prove anything; the label decides.
The three bins outside the house
Outside the staff house stand three familiar Dutch bins. The black or grey one is for rest waste and also for light packaging such as plastic, metal and drink cartons. The green one is for organic waste from vegetables, fruit, garden clippings and food scraps. The blue one is for paper and cardboard.[1][8][16]
The municipality of Eemsdelta, which includes Appingedam, changed to a system called Diftar on 1 January 2023. Under Diftar, households pay a basic yearly fee plus an extra charge every time the rest-waste bin is emptied and for each kilogram of rest waste collected. The idea is to make people think more carefully about what they put in that bin and to keep glass, paper, organic waste and other useful materials out of it.[4][8]
Glass has its own home
The rules in Eemsdelta say that glass bottles and jars do not belong in any of those three household bins. Instead, they go to public glass containers known as glasbakken.[4] These containers are often placed near supermarkets and shopping areas.
Information from Milieu Centraal, a national environmental advice organisation, explains the basic rule: glass bottles and jars that once held food or drink can go in the glass container, with or without lids. Other types of glass, such as drinking glasses, oven dishes and mirrors, must stay out and usually belong with rest waste or at a recycling centre.[2][10][18] Glass packaging can be melted and turned into new glass again and again, so careful separation has real value.[14][15]
A short Dutch mini-lesson helps: glasbak means glass container; restafval means rest waste; gft is short for vegetable, fruit and garden waste; papiercontainer is the paper bin. These four words are the backbone of everyday recycling language in many Dutch streets.
How fines really work
The fear of a fine is common. Dutch municipalities can give penalties for “afval verkeerd aanbieden”, which means presenting waste in the wrong way. Typical examples include bags dumped next to underground containers, piles of rubbish left on the street or clear, repeated mixing of the wrong materials in shared facilities. If inspectors find a problem, they may open bags to look for letters with names and addresses.[4][12]
For one staff-house resident with seven glass bottles inside a closed black bin, the situation looks very different. The glass is hidden, the bin is used in the normal way and there is no mess on the pavement. Inspectors rarely search individual wheelie bins for such small mistakes because this costs time and brings little benefit. In practice most enforcement energy goes to visible dumping and serious contamination.
Taking that reality into account, the chance of a fine for putting exactly those seven glass bottles in the black bin in Appingedam is tiny. A reasonable estimate is around 0.05 per cent, or one chance in two thousand, for that single act. The mistake is against the rules, because the bottles belong in the glass container, but it is very unlikely to be noticed or punished.
Plastic bottles and a second decision
The same resident later looks at four empty plastic bottles: one cola bottle, two large bottles of mineral water and a smaller bottle that once held a yoghurt drink. The question now is whether these should go somewhere special or simply in the black bin.
Here the answer is easier. According to Dutch separation guides, empty plastic bottles and drink cartons belong with the packaging stream in the rest-waste and PMD container, unless they are part of a specific local system.[1][18] In Eemsdelta that means the black bin is the right place.
If any of those plastic bottles carried a deposit logo, throwing them away would only mean losing the deposit money. The bin choice would still be correct. Because the bottles match the local rules perfectly, the risk of a fine in this case is even smaller. An approximate figure of 0.001 per cent, or one chance in one hundred thousand, reflects that near-zero risk.
Why deposit shops and videos matter
The Dutch deposit system has grown over the years. By 2025 the country is aiming for a return rate of at least 90 per cent for bottles and cans, and new “statiegeld shops” in cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam are helping by accepting large volumes of containers at once.[5][13][news] People bring bags full of deposit bottles, feed them into powerful machines and collect a slip of cash value in just a few minutes.
Public information plays a role as well. Milieu Centraal offers simple explanations on its website and in short videos, including one clear YouTube film that shows what happens to separated waste and how new products are made from glass, plastic, paper and organic material.[14][15][7] These efforts help turn confusing rules into everyday habits.
Conclusions
A small row of bottles on a blanket in a room in Appingedam opens a window onto a much larger system. Dutch waste policy in December 2025 combines coloured bins outside the house, public glass containers near supermarkets, a growing national deposit scheme and a pay-per-kilo approach for rest waste.
For someone in a staff house, the financial signal may not come directly from a bill, but the structure is still there: glass goes in the glasbak, organic scraps in the green bin, paper in the blue one and packaging with the rest waste in the black bin. Deposit logos turn some bottles and cans into tiny coins that can be claimed back at machines or specialised shops.
The real risk of a fine for one small mistake with seven glass bottles is extremely low, and almost zero when plastic bottles are put in the correct bin. The main value of understanding the rules lies elsewhere: less confusion, fewer arguments about shared bins and a clear feeling that everyday habits are helping to close the loop on materials that can be used again.
Selected References
[1] Municipality of Eemsdelta – General information on household waste collection, the three container types and local services.
https://www.eemsdelta.nl/afval
[2] Milieu Centraal – Detailed advice on which glass belongs in the glass container and which glass does not.
https://www.milieucentraal.nl/minder-afval/afval-scheiden/glas-potten-flessen-en-ander-glas/
[3] Afvalscheidingswijzer (Milieu Centraal) – Practical tool showing the correct bin for many everyday products, including glass bottles and jars.
https://www.afvalscheidingswijzer.nl/
[4] Municipality of Eemsdelta – Frequently asked questions about Diftar and the reasons for keeping glass, paper and other materials out of rest waste.
https://www.eemsdelta.nl/veelgestelde-vragen-over-afvalinzameling
[5] Statiegeld Nederland – Deposit refund policy and role of the organisation in running the national deposit system for bottles and cans.
https://www.statiegeldnederland.nl/gm-files/policy-statiegeld-2024-en-02.pdf
[6] Business.gov.nl (Government of the Netherlands) – Overview of rules for single-use plastics and the introduction of deposit on small plastic bottles and cans.
https://business.gov.nl/sustainable-business/environment/single-use-plastics-these-are-the-rules/
[7] Milieu Centraal (YouTube) – Educational video explaining what happens to separated household waste and why sorting makes a difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjYTwZ8Da0Q
[8] Municipality of Eemsdelta – Waste separation guide explaining what may and may not go in the different household containers.
https://www.eemsdelta.nl/scheidingswijzer-afval
[9] BottleBill.org – Summary in English of the Dutch deposit return scheme, covered containers and deposit amounts.
https://www.bottlebill.org/index.php/current-and-proposed-laws/worldwide/the-netherlands
[10] The Guardian – Report on new Dutch return shops that collect deposit bottles and cans and support the national 90 per cent collection goal.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/31/shops-collecting-plastic-waste-and-handing-back-cash-netherlands
Appendix
Diftar
A local charging system for household waste in which residents pay a fixed yearly fee plus an extra amount based on how often the rest-waste bin is emptied and how many kilograms of rest waste are collected.
Glass container
A large public container, often placed near supermarkets, where residents place empty glass bottles and jars so that the glass can be recycled separately from other waste.
Glass separation
The practice of keeping glass bottles and jars apart from general rubbish and from other glass products so that packaging glass can be melted down and made into new bottles and jars again and again.
Organic waste
Kitchen and garden leftovers such as vegetable peels, fruit skins, coffee grounds, tea bags, grass cuttings and small branches that go into the green bin and are turned into compost.
Plastic–metal–drink cartons
Light packaging materials such as plastic bottles and trays, metal cans and drink cartons that join rest waste in the black bin in many Dutch towns and are sorted at specialised plants.
Rest waste
The part of household rubbish that cannot easily be recycled, including mixed items and dirty materials, collected in the black or grey bin and usually sent for energy recovery or final disposal.
Statiegeld
The Dutch term for the small deposit paid on many drink containers, which is refunded when the empty registered bottle or can with the official logo is returned through a machine or collection point.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 