The House of Representatives has supported a motion to scrap the plastic tax for single-use plastic packaging. This would mean that customers in the Netherlands would not have to pay extra for disposable plastic containers used for takeaway foods and drinks. 

U-turn on anti-single-use plastics policy in the Netherlands 

In July 2023, stricter rules on the use of disposable plastics were introduced in the Netherlands. As a means of limiting how many single-use plastic containers are used in the Dutch catering and hospitality industry, customers currently have to pay a fee for packaging that can only be used once. How much they pay is determined by businesses - the government advises a surcharge of 25 cents for a plastic cup and 50 cents for food packaging.

The so-called “plastic tax” is part of a European directive which also bans paper cups with a layer of plastic from being used at events, favouring reusable containers. Earlier this week, the House of Representatives adopted a motion to reverse the plastic tax from January 1, 2026, removing the additional costs and allowing paper cups with plastic coatings as long as there is a system to collect and recycle them. 

Plastic tax has not changed Dutch consumer behaviour

According to MPs, the introduction of the plastic tax did not lead to more sustainability but did result in higher costs for consumers. "This undermines support for the climate measures," MP Jimmy Dijk (SP) told AD. 

According to De Telegraaf, MP Martijn Buijss (VVD) stated that paper cups with plastic coatings reduce environmental pollution by 95 percent, citing this as a reason to remove the ban. The rest of the House of Representatives approved the motion, despite the State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment Chris Jansen previously stating that this would be “unfeasible” - an estimated 4 billion of these cups would be used, which according to Jansen is an “impossible” number to check for collection and recycling. 

Thomas Kascha from the company Natural Tableware told De Telegraaf that a levy for the paper cups was “nonsense” and did not make businesses change their behaviour. “You saw that many companies that were actually working sustainably went back to plastic products. Exactly the wrong path for what we all need for our environment. What the House now wants is exactly what the State Secretary should have done from the start."

Jansen is currently looking at processing the requests from the motion, emphasising that European rules around single-use plastics still need to be followed. "If we were to abolish certain measures, something else would have to be added somewhere else," he told AD.