Waste separation

As a business owner in the Netherlands you must separate waste in your business. The Dutch National Waste Management Plan (Landelijk Afvalbeheerplan, LAP3) has been drawn up to make sure as many products and materials as possible are reused.

Hazardous waste

You must always separate hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is waste which is dangerous to humans, animals, or the environment. You can find information on the classification of waste in the European List of Waste. This is a list with codes and descriptions of all types of waste.

Non-hazardous waste

You must always separate all non-hazardous waste. This waste consists of:

• waste you have to separate depending on the size of your location and the amount of waste
• a one-time large amount of waste, for instance as a result of maintenance or a large delivery
• commercial or industrial waste you must always separate

Help with commercial waste separation

Use our step-by-step plan for separating company waste or our Company waste separation tool to find out more on your company waste management. Do you need more information on the National Waste Management Plan (LAP3) and your responsibilities regarding waste separation? You can then contact the Waste Management Department Information Desk (RWS Environment, in Dutch)

Producer responsibility

Recycling and waste management are priority topics for the EU. The coming years there will be a shift towards extended producer responsibility and recycling of waste. You can find more information on these ambitions on the Rijkswaterstaat Environment website.