Waste management in the Netherlands

Abstract

Since the end of the 19th century waste has fundamentally been a public health and safety issue (Eberg, 1997, p.3). People had to be protected from waste for reasons of health and safety and the first legislation concerning waste has to be seen as constructed within this context. The legislation concerning waste has a long history. However, a clear answer to when exactly this legislation started in the Netherlands is difficult to give. Some authors state the Nuisance Act, which was adopted on 7 January 1875, was the first Dutch environmental act. Others follow the trace back to the beginning of the 19th century when the imperial directive concerning odour nuisance was adopted (Beenakkers, 1991, p. 12). Although these beginnings of waste legislation, whichever act is the first, may indicate a long history of environmental concern, it does not guarantee that the concern for environmental issue in general, and waste issues in particular, has grown ever since. It is important to note that in the period 1875–1952 one of the first environmental laws, the Nuisance Act, is said to have been particularly inactive (Aalders 1984).