City leaders in Amsterdam are taking a novel approach to keeping its streets clean – by taking away litter bins to combat rubbish in part blamed on people rifling through them to obtain refund deposits on some discarded items.
There has been a surge in complaints about litter in the Dutch capital since the introduction of a deposit scheme for small bottles and cans. Last year, a quarter of residents described their neighbourhood as dirty or very dirty, rising to two in five in the city centre.
Hester van Buren, city finance chief and responsible for waste collection, said “however illogical it sounds”, trials in busy shopping streets and parks have suggested that taking away some of the city’s 12,000 litter bins is the answer.
“The broken windows theory is that rubbish attracts more rubbish,” she said. “People throw bottles with deposits on them into bins […] The bins are pulled open three times a day and, of course, the litter blowing around attracts vermin.”
She said increasing the number of street cleans was a losing battle, adding: “We also need to look at changing behaviour.”
Bins will be removed in streets full of takeaways, where businesses are legally required to provide litter collection and cleaning, and from areas where an underground rubbish container is easily accessible.
The city is also experimenting with devices that swing shut when opened or have slots where people can “donate” empties, as in Denmark.
After a viral LinkedIn post from the entrepreneur Victor Knaap complaining about “rubbish on every corner”, 9,099 locals have signed up for a community clean-up day on Friday.
Kor van der Bij, project leader at the Rubbiz foundation, said litter-picking demonstrated that people cared about where they live. “Of course, the government can do its work better and businesses can use less plastic,” he said. “But citizens need to roll up their sleeves too.”
