The Netherlands is Europe’s biggest importer of rubbish

The Netherlands has grown into the biggest importer of waste in Europe, as power plants look abroad for solutions to fill their excess capacity.

More than one million tonnes of waste from Britain, Ireland and Italy ends up in Dutch furnaces every year and insiders expect the market to double in the coming years, the Financieele Dagblad said.

‘The Netherlands leads the way, followed by Sweden and then Denmark,’ Ella Stengler, of the European waste-to-energy group Cewep told the paper.

Dutch firms are paid to process the waste and produce energy from it. In total, the import of household waste from other countries generates tens of millions of euros for Dutch firms, the paper said.

Apart from overcapacity at power plants, the Netherlands is producing less domestic waste because of the economic downturn and recycling schemes, the paper said.

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