Instead of our usual summer conference, this year we organised a study tour to Holland.  Thirty three delegates travelled to Holland in May to observe recycling operations and the use of underground refuse containers. 

The first part of the study tour was to visit Netwerk, a company owned by four local authorities in the southern part of the Netherlands.  Netwerk’s Dordrecht operation serves 120,000 people and collects 66,700 tpa household waste.  Of this, 40% is recycled or composted (not including construction/demolition waste or ash recycling) and the remainder incinerated at a 240,000 tpa incinerator in Dordrecht that serves some 17 local authorities.  Only incineration residues go to the one large landraise facility as landraise void is at such a premium; literally a premium at £78/t including tax. 

Delegates visited an impressive CA site in Dordrecht and went on to observe the OMB refuse collection system in operation.  Underground containers for domestic refuse from apartment blocks and underground bottle banks are emptied automatically by a fleet of specialist one-man collection vehicles.

The party went on to Eindhoven to visit the impressive recycling facilities of MIREC for electrical and electronic wastes. 

For a full account of the study tour please visit our web site where you will find an article by Chris Davey (Chairman of LARAC) and Robert Walker (RLCL).

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