More bottle banks only imply a small increase in recycling of glass in the Netherlands

The Netherlands advocates a glass recycling rate of more than 90%. In 2017, the rate is 86%. To reach this goal the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate wants to improve the collection infrastructure by increasing the number of bottle banks with 800 by 2021. However, a cost-effectiveness analysis is lacking. Based on empirical evidence with data from 2007-2017, we show that increasing the number of bottle banks is rather ineffective. Implementing an unit-based pricing system can be more effective, although this can have serious drawbacks.