Councilor Susanne Schilderman: “Not everyone has the space for their own waste bin, for example if you do not have a garden. As a result, food waste often ends up in the residual waste. With this pilot, we want to make it easier to separate waste. Therefore, we are now placing special containers for vegetable, fruit, and food waste in several neighborhoods, where residents without a waste bin can also separate their waste. This reduces the amount of residual waste and takes a concrete step to turn waste back into something useful, such as compost or biogas. We start in a number of neighborhoods and then determine whether we can also place the containers in other neighborhoods.”

Sustainable Utrecht
The municipality of Utrecht aims to significantly increase the amount of vegetable, fruit, and food waste collected per resident. The city currently collects about 30 kilograms of gfe per resident per year, while about double that still ends up in the residual waste. The new containers make waste separation easier for people who currently do not have a good option for it. The separated waste is also processed together with garden waste into green gas and compost, and reused.

Brown Waste Bins
In high-rise neighborhoods, gfe waste is currently collected with brown waste bins (city bins) of 40 liters. These are inconvenient for many people: they take up a lot of space and become heavy to empty for collection services. With the new containers, residents can easily dispose of their food waste at any time of the day. Once the new containers are placed, the municipality will stop emptying the city bins in these neighborhoods.

Placing Containers
In 2026, the municipality will start a pilot in a number of neighborhoods with apartments, upper houses, and high-rise buildings: parts of Kanaleneiland, the Zeeheldenbuurt, Terwijde, the Lodewijk Napoleonplantsoen, the Watervogelbuurt, Tolsteeg, and Rotsoord. Residents of these neighborhoods will receive a letter with all the information. 

For placing the containers, the municipality will first create a location plan, taking into account the available space in the neighborhoods as much as possible. Residents can respond to this plan. The municipality reviews all responses and adjusts the plan where possible. After that, a final decision will be made about the locations. The containers will be placed in 2026.

All households that can start separating gfe waste from 2026 will receive a starter package with a voucher for a gfe container, bags, and an overview of what can go into the gfe waste. For more information, visit: www.utrecht.nl/gfe

The gfe container is slightly recessed, so that, for example, people in a wheelchair can easily throw their gfe in it.