Residents can recycle glass, paper, organic waste, chemical and paint waste, batteries and clothes.

It seems the Dutch take environmental issues very seriously - so seriously that the national government was dissolved in 1989 as a result of disasterous environmental planning.

As a small country which must allocate residential and industrial zones in relativly small areas, the recycling of waste products in the Netherlands becomes essential.

"I have always been surprised how willing consumers are to separate their rubbish," said Robert van Duin, a chemical engineer specialising in environmental issues.

Van Duin has been advising the government on recycling for the past 20 years.

"Because the government collapsed over these issues, it shows how important the environment was as a political issue 15-20 years ago," he said.

"But while they are still more important than - say the US - the importance as an issue has lessened over the past few years. The questions of how to go on have changed"

For example, government statistics revealed that more than 60 percent of both paper and glass waste was recycled, but Van Duin said recycling methods were not always the best option.

"Take glass, which has the highest rate of recycling ... but we are now aware that it is better to use re-fillable bottles than to process the glass," he said.

Another problem with recycling is from the GFT waste (vegetable, fruit and garden waste) collected for composting. Sometimes the organic waste is already too polluted or the recycling centres are filled too quickly.

Recycling questions

An important question now arises: how good is the recycled product?

"In the case of plastics, recyling delivers a very low-grade end-product," Van Duin said.

"It is the manner in which it is collected that creates the most problems in quality."

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