HISTORICAL DECISION ON DEPOSITS
and the campaigning and lobbying by the Plastic Soup Surfer
April 25th 2020 state-secretary Van Veldhoven officially declared that deposits on small plastic bottles will be mandatory from July 1ste 2021 onward. A breakthrough decision after more than twenty-year fight and lobbying by industry.
This decision is a direct result of the 'Plastic Soup Surfer petition resolution': the political promise in 2017 to "reduce litter caused by plastic bottles by 90% within 3 years with effective measures"
In the Netherlands over 70 million small plastic bottles are littered in streets, parks and waterways on a yearly basis. Deposits help prevent this.
The adoption of the 'plastic soup surfer resolution' was the breakthrough of a political deadlock. A two decade long fight between industry and environmental NGO's had forced political parties into a trench war with unsurmountable principal differences preventing a compromise. Since industry was on the upper hand it managed to delay decision making and jump from parliament to new parliament, keeping the deadlock in place.
The new approach by the Plastic Soup Surfer surprised the fighting parties. The 'Plastic Soup Surfer resolution' (adopted Feb 16th 2017) brought a pragmatic approach:
First; it split the battle over beverage containers and narrowed it down to plastic bottles as a first start.
Secondly; it put the result - no plastic pollution - in the center of the discussion instead of the reverse-vending machines, the logistics and the costs (the means)..
State secretary Dijksma (PvdA) and Van Veldhoven (D66) successively understood the new angle and have used the 'Plastic Soup Surfer petition resolution' as the basis for new policy.
(The 'Plastic Soup Surfer resolution' was written by the surfer himself and was adopted by parliament without vote: unique in Dutch parliamentary history.)
To attract attention to his petition 'pro deposits' Merijn Tinga kitesurfed across the North Sea to England (190km) on a surfboard composed of small plastic bottles: a crossing never attempted before in this direction.
