How much cardboard do we recycle in the Netherlands?

The average European resident produces more and more waste and that also applies to the Dutch resident. On average, a Dutch person produces more than 490 kg of waste per person per year. This large quantity includes glass, organic waste, textiles, but also paper and cardboard. Fortunately, we recycle a lot of this paper and cardboard in the Netherlands. But how much is this?

Paper and cardboard is the most recycled material of all types of waste in the Netherlands. The recycling percentage of paper and cardboard is around 80%, while that of glass and plastic is about 5% lower. Every Dutch person hands in a lot of paper and cardboard every year. This amounts to approximately 2,500,000 tons per year for all Dutch people.

How is the Netherlands doing compared to Europe?
The Netherlands is the European leader in paper and cardboard recycling. The average recycling percentage of paper and cardboard in Europe was around 70%. This is 10 percent lower than the percentage in the Netherlands. In addition, the Netherlands also has a low pollution percentage of paper and cardboard. The pollution percentage means that between the old paper and cardboard there are other raw materials that can’t be recycled. In 2021-2022, this percentage averaged at 3.36% in the Netherlands.

The future recycling goals:
The European recycling targets for all packaging waste is set at 70% in 2030. But since the Netherlands has almost reached this target already, the Netherlands has set a different target. They want to be at 74% of all packaging materials by 2025.

Paper and cardboard is already above this percentage. This means that not much needs has to be changed in the current situation. But this does not mean that there isn’t room for improvement. The quality of the recycled paper and cardboard can always be improved.

The consumer can also participate in this. You yourself can remove various things from the paper and cardboard at home. This includes tape, bubble wrap and staples.

In this way we all work together to keep the recyclability of the paper and cardboard as high as possible.