The Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool took its readers through litter throughout the city at the end of the year. For the final part, the rise of the underground waste container could not be missed, of course. The article appeared in Het Parool of Wednesday, December 7, 2016 and was written by Bart van Zoelen.
Dutch-made underground trash containers can be found as far away as Turkey and Canada. It marks their rapid rise, which began in and around Amsterdam in the mid-1990s.
The Willem de Zwijgerlaan in West had the scoop. The first underground waste containers were tested there in the mid-1990s. The first of the whole Netherlands even, if you ask Bert Hagens of waste collector Afvalservice West. Aboveground ‘cocoons’ for household waste were already there, enormous beasts. Hence the thought at the time at the then De Baarsjes district council: why not do it underground?
In 1996, the advance of the underground dumpster could begin. The trial had proved a success, De Baarsjes decided to expand it to the rest of the district. “Oud-West came right after that,” Hagens recalls. “Then it went to borough Osdorp and the east side of the city.”
Whether De Baarsjes had the scoop is also a bit of a matter of definition. It was the first major underground container order for supplier Bammens, that much is certain. A new growth spurt beckoned for the factory, which had been known for its heavy zinc trash bins since 1931.
But waste processor Rutte from Halfweg also came up with an underground container in the mid-1990s. The first of these appeared in the municipality of Haarlemmerliede as early as 1993. These were containers of the so-called Metro System, a kind of chute with an underground pipe network that was emptied with compressed air.
They also stood in Buitenveldert, for an experiment by Rutte and stadsdeel Zuid. The test at the Dikninge was not a success. Emptying the subway tubes took at least half an hour and all that time a truck stood in the way. Not convenient in the big city. On top of that, the vacuums kept getting stuck on cat grit.
But the test showed that Amsterdam’s cramped residents were delighted that they no longer had to wait on a fixed day a week to take out their garbage. De Metro’ was supposed to be emptied after a period of weeks, but due to garbage tourism from the surrounding streets, this quickly became twice a week.

Green waste

The idea of disposing of garbage underground hung in the air, so to speak, in the mid-1990s. Nor were the city districts concerned about less litter or lack of space on the streets, although that may explain why Amsterdam was narrowly ahead of other cities. However, it was the new waste legislation that was the deciding factor, Hagens knows. As of 1994, it had to be possible to separate green waste (VGF). And new rules for garbage collectors were introduced in 1997, because many of them dropped out around the age of 45 due to a worn-out back.
Perhaps that explains why the advance just over the border in Germany did not continue, even though manufacturers there were already using underground containers. In the Netherlands, the larger cities followed before the year 2000. “After that, it spread throughout Europe like an oil slick.”
The soft subsoil also plays a role, says Quirijn van Loon, the deputy director of VConsyst, which Amsterdam may supply some four thousand new underground trash containers in the coming years. “It’s easier to dig here. And in the Netherlands, waste collection is in the hands of the municipalities. If that is not the case, it becomes difficult to introduce new systems.”
“From all over Europe, cities came to take a look: what are the Dutch doing? Ever since 2000, we have been supplying our containers in France and Scandinavia, for example. Bammens and we are pretty much the biggest in Europe in this.” It is still a growing market. “What once started in the Amsterdam region is spreading all over the world.” Through local manufacturers, Bammens and VConsyst deliver their containers as far away as Turkey and Canada.

Open with smartphones

And to think that VConsyst is originally an ICT company. For example, the Genemuiden-based company makes entrance gates for swimming pools and amusement parks. It also supplied a pass system for waste containers to Rutte. After Rutte got into trouble in the late 1990s due to several convictions for environmental crimes, one thing led to another and VConsyst also started to specialize in “waste collection systems.
That ICT background of VConsyst will be an advantage. The waste container of the future will become more and more of a device, VConsyst expects. Because they can be opened by the nfc chip in smartphones, for example. It also fits the new approach of thoroughly separated waste getting a second life as raw material. New ICT can register and reward that. “Steering by behavior and convenience,” says Van Loon.
Or think of containers that register themselves how full they are. “Because containers are emptied only when full, less equipment and fewer trips through the city are needed,” says Bert Hagens But even then, human behavior remains the biggest pitfall. Because the main reason that piles of garbage build up next to the container is the Amsterdammer himself. Taking apart a box that doesn’t fit is sometimes too much to ask. And as soon as one piece of trash is on the street, more follow. “Nobody then checks to see if the container is also full.”
Whether underground trash containers also reduce litter on the street has never really been researched. At least, the municipality and VConsyst do not know. The connection is also pretty obvious, they note. In neighborhoods where it was still waiting for the underground containers – such as in De Pijp, where the underground garbage container only appeared in 2015 and is now slowly but surely advancing – it is also mentioned as one of the explanations for the messy streetscape. “It’s a lot cleaner than it was 20 years ago,” Bert Hagens also says of West, where he saw the underground container still coming as a civil servant with stadsdeel De Baarsjes. “There is much less small sweeping garbage than then.”