Every years millions of euros worth of gold, copper, iron and recyclable plastics are thrown away in the Netherlands, rather than recycled, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

The CBS estimates that in 2012 gold worth €27m ended up in rubbish heaps because people did not hand over electronic equipment for recycling. The total value of metal and other materials which could have been reused was around €73m.

While larger pieces of equipment are often collected for recycling, small objects like electric toothbrushes are still more likely to be thrown away, the CBS said.