Amsterdam

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Amsterdam is the cultural capital of The Netherlands
a densely populated, low-lying country which has a
growing population and a diminishing amount of spare
land. In the late twentieth century, rising prosperity
in the country had led to the greater production and
consumption of goods and a consequent increase
in waste generation. Lack of space and growing
environmental awareness forced the Dutch government
to take measures to reduce their reliance on landfill.

The Dutch approach is simple: avoid creating waste in
the first place, recover the valuable raw materials from it,
generate energy by incinerating residual waste, and only
then dump what is left, but do so in an environmentally
acceptable way. This approach - known as ‘Lansink’s
Ladder’ - was incorporated into Dutch legislation in 1994.

Question 2

Landfill 1

Answer 2

• The increasing level of material consumption and the significant lack of physical space, together with
environmental deterioration of the land, forced the Dutch government to take measures early on to
reduce the landfilling of waste.
› There were increasing numbers of objections to waste disposal sites from the public due to smell, soil
pollution and groundwater contamination.

• In 1995, the government introduced a landfill tax on every tonne of material landfilled. This gave waste
processing companies the financial incentive to look for other methods such as recycling and incineration.
Landfill tax was increased year on year until 2012 when it was repealed because the low level of
landfilling had rendered the tax unnecessary.

Question 3

Landfill 2

Answer 3

• A landfill ban covering 35 waste categories was
introduced in 1995.

• The amount of waste sent to landfill decreased
significantly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By
2006, the country had already reached the targets of
the Landfill Directive set for 2016.

Question 4

Incineration 1

Answer 4

Waste to energy incineration in Amsterdam: the AfvalEnergie Bedrijf (AB) incineration plant
• In a strategy referred to as waste-to-energy (W2E), Amsterdam has created the Afval Energie Bedrijf (AEB)
incineration plant capable of producing 1 million MWh
of electricity annually. Beyond the energy factor, the plant is also being used to create heating for several
communities around Amsterdam, and produces 300,000 gigajoules of heat annually.
• Annually, 1.4 million tons of waste is brought to the W2E plant. This amounts to 600 trucks and one
freight train per day of refuse from the Amsterdam metropolitan area.
• 64 per cent of the waste that ends up at the plant is recycled.

Question 5

Incineration 2

Answer 5

• Aware of the environmental effects of the gases from this process, the AB plant has installed a complex
process of scrubbing the flue gases. Attempts are being made to close the loop for other by-products
so that the material can be used in other industrial processes - from trace elements for manufacturing
to fly ash for construction. Whatever material is left becomes landfill.

• Next door to the W2E plant is the Waternet water treatment plant. The two plants work together: the
incineration plant supplies energy and heat for water treatment processes; the water treatment plant
injects its sludge and biogas into the incineration plant as an additional fuel source.

• As the plant performs several functions (elimination
of waste, generation of electricity and heat) simultaneously, it compares positively to other disposal
methods, actually avoiding 438 kilotons of CO2 per year.

Question 6

Comparison

Answer 6

If the equivalent amount of waste was put into landfill, the COy emissions per year would be 1036 kilotons.
This would mainly be as a result of methane gases developing at the landfill. If these gases were either
captured or burned off, it would reduce the total emissions to 404 kilotons - still higher than the 438
kilotons of COz ‘saved’ by the AB incineration plant.

Question 7

Conclusion

Answer 7

The waste to energy strategy in Amsterdam is
considered both economically and environmentally
better than landfill. However, incineration is still a
controversial waste disposal strategy and in 2014, the
Dutch government set the target to reduce waste to )
incineration by 50 per cent and focus on improving
rates of reduction and recycling. Like other twenty-first century cities aiming for sustainability

Movement from waste disposal to overall waste reduction is ultimate goal