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January 1st, 2020: start post-separation of plastic, metal, and Drink cartons

From January 1st, 2020 onwards, you no longer have to separate plastic, metal, and drink cartons (PMD) yourself. Everything can be disposed of in the residual waste container at home. The waste treatment company AVR, based in Rotterdam, will do the rest. There, PMD is separated from the residual waste. We call this process post-separation.

Four municipalities in Zeeland
Four Zeeland municipalities are participating in this trial: Borsele, Noord-Beveland, Reimerswaal and Terneuzen. The trial period is two years.

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Residual waste bin becomes PMD+ bin

Your residual waste bin will be officially called the PMD+ bin from next year onwards. PMD is short for plastic, metal, and drink cartons, the + stands for residual waste. Residual waste is the small amount of waste that remains after you have properly separated the other waste (organic waste, paper and cardboard, textiles and glass). The large collection containers near flats and apartments (high-rise buildings) become PMD+ collection-containers.

What, among other things, should go in the PMD+ bin?

  • Yoghurt, custard and ice-cream packaging
  • Plastic films and bags
  • Plastic bottles for shampoo and detergent
  • Vegetable cans, soda cans, and steel syrup bottles
  • Dairy and juice cartons
  • Residual waste (coffee capsules, crisps bags, vacuum cleaner bags)

How do I save space in my PMD+ bin

Fold your drinks cartons and crush bottles and cans. PET bottles and beverage cartons are easy to shrink. This means they take up less space.
See the folding instruction.

  • Wij doen de rest.nu

What happens to my PMD+ waste?

The PMD+ waste goes to the post-separation centre from waste processing company Afval Verwerking Rijnmond (AVR). AVR is specialised in processing various types of residual waste. The company extracts valuable waste streams, such as plastic, metal packaging, and drink cartons, from our waste. This so-called PMD waste is removed and processed into new raw materials. This way, we achieve the best possible waste separation for our municipality. The small amount of residual waste that remains, goes to the waste-to-energy plant and is incinerated there. Part of the heat released during this process is used to generate electricity.

  • Drankkarton
  • Blik
  • Plastic

This is how the AVR separator works!

PMD-waste as a new resource

Plastic, metal, and drink cartons are perfectly recyclable. Each follow their own route towards new materials.

Plastic
Plastic packaging is sorted into different types of plastics, from which plastic granules (small round grains) are produced. They are the source for new products, such as jerrycans, fleece sweaters, toys, garden chairs, pipes, and tubes.

Metal
Most metal packaging is made of steel, and a small part of aluminium. All these metals can be recycled endlessly. The material re-enters the production process as a raw material.

Drink cartons
Drink cartons create valuable resources for new products like office supplies (made from paper and cardboard), toilet paper, crates, buckets or new boxes. The aluminium in the cartons is used to make aluminium tubes.

Why are we doing this?

Waste processors are becoming increasingly better at separating different types of packaging made from plastic, metal and drink cartons (PMD) from residual waste after collection. This process is called post-separation. This is necessary, because waste separation by residents does not happen at its full potential. By post-separation (thus after collection of the waste bins), much more plastic, metal, and drink cartons get separated from the waste. Waste that otherwise would be incinerated. The more waste we separate, the better we can reuse it as raw materials. With this, we need fewer new raw materials, energy, and money to create new materials. This is much better for the environment.

More convenience
Choosing post-separation means your convenience increases. There is no more need to reserve space in your home for separating plastic, metal, and drink cartons. You no longer need to drive back and forth to large collection containers in the neighbourhood. You correctly dispose of your waste, we will take care of the rest! The large plastic and drink carton collection containers that are found at various locations within the municipalities, will be removed from January 1st, 2020.