The campaign

Learned young is done old, which is why we are motivating schools in gemeente Dronten to become waste-free. A waste-free school is one that produces as little waste as possible and is committed to separating 100% of the waste it produces. A waste-free school has less than 30% residual waste.

Besides having a positive impact and the environment, a waste-free school also has a good effect on the school's wallet. Through our website, we offer schools tools to address waste separation in the classroom.

It is a habit, every week the advertising leaflets fall on the mat. Most leaflets are viewed only fleetingly or not at all; other leaflets are favorites. Often in three out of ten households advertising leaflets go unseen into the trash. For this reason, as of May 1, 2023, the yes/no sticker has been introduced.

This means that from now on, as a resident, you choose whether to receive unaddressed advertising mail. Many other towns and cities preceded us. As a resident, you make an important contribution to this. By not putting a "yes" sticker on your mailbox, you waste 34 kg less paper annually. Moreover, you do not have to miss anything: you can view all your favorite brochures digitally via various apps.

Most minicontainers in the gemeente Dronten are older than 15 years and therefore economically depreciated. As a result, the municipality regularly receives requests to replace a container due to damage to the containers. Therefore, all minicontainers for PBD, GFT and residual waste were replaced in late 2022 and early 2023.

The new containers are equipped with a chip, this allows us to know which container is present at which address. Advantages of replacing mini-containers is:

• Only mini-containers for which waste collection fees are paid are emptied.
• The municipality can start collecting more efficiently based on data that can be measured on the supply of mini-containers.
• In case of improper supply and contamination in a container, we can communicate in a targeted manner and enforce if necessary.
• There will be clear information on the new containers. This will help in separating our waste even better.
• Old mini-containers are given a new Iife and recycled.

At the environmental site, we can separate waste properly. This is better for the environment. We want to encourage residents to bring waste to the environmental street. That is why in 2023 the area of the waste disposal site was widened. This will benefit the service. There will also be longer opening hours and it will soon be possible to bring recycled goods there.

Good to know: it is still possible to have bulky waste picked up by appointment for a fee. This service remains unchanged.

We want less residual waste. This waste is not recycled but incinerated and this costs money. At the moment, you can still deposit unlimited amounts of residual waste with your waste card in underground containers. On average, households deposit 1.5 residual waste bags per week. Households that separate their waste properly deposit only once a week.

In the 3rd quarter of 2023, each household will receive a deposit credit of 2 deposits per day. The main reason for this measure that we notice that businesses sometimes use the underground residual waste containers illegally. Underground containers for residual waste are intended for households only.

There will be an information campaign for companies with regional commercial collectors with whom they can contract. We expect a decrease in the amount of residual waste of 5 kg per inhabitant year with this measure.

Still 35% of our residual waste consists of vegetable, fruit and garden (VFG) and food waste. This is a shame because a lot of GFT waste can be avoided. In addition, GFT waste that is offered separately is suitable for recycling. Your GFT waste becomes compost again!

In addition to more education about GFT, we are deploying three measures to reduce the amount of GFT waste in residual waste:

• There will be special containers near apartment complexes where residents can separate GFT and food waste. This is because these residents do not have a mini-container for GFT.
• We hand out free GFT trays for use in the kitchen. This makes separating GFT and food waste easier.
• Composting yourself? It is also possible to compost your own GFT waste and food scraps. Residents, neighborhoods or schools can adopt their own compost bin or worm hotel.