What rubbish

There's much that's beautiful about the Netherlands: the tall people, the architecture, the egalitarianism. But what's really caught my attention is how the Dutch go about disposing their rubbish.

Coming from the UK, where your waste disposal experience can range from the mundane (dropping your bags in a wheelie bin or a skip) to the wild (leaving your weekly rubbish outside on the pavement on Sunday night and hoping that neighbourhood foxes—the animals—don't embarrass you), Dutch dustbins were a revelation.

Photo of clean dustbins amongst flowers. Source: the Amsterdam municipality

The deceptively tiny bins store the bulk of their contents underground till they're emptied by the local council every few days.

There's no worrying about whether you have your council-allocated bags for recycling or not, no overflowing bins, no smelly skips, no ripped bin bags all over the pavement, no questionable fluids leaking everywhere. And definitely no foxes. Just drop in your plastics / cardboard / glass / general waste and get on with your day. Imagine that.

Simple, effective design.

Goed geregeld.

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