ROTTERDAM, 22 June 2026 – Rotterdam collects 84% of the regular household waste examined as residual waste, according to an analysis of CBS figures by Your Kitchen. That is 34 percentage points higher than the Zuid-Holland average, where 50% of the examined household waste ends up in residual waste.
Per person, Rotterdam produces 266 kilos of household residual waste (restafval). That is 105 kilos more than the provincial average of 161 kilos per person.
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Rotterdam ranks high in Zuid-Holland
Within Zuid-Holland, Rotterdam ranks second out of 50 municipalities when looking at the highest share of residual waste in the regular household waste streams examined. Residual waste is also the category in which Rotterdam differs most sharply from the provincial picture.
The figures do not mean that every Rotterdam household throws away the same amount, or that behaviour alone explains the difference. A city with many flats, limited garden space, different collection systems and a dense urban layout faces different waste challenges than smaller municipalities with more low-rise housing and private outdoor space.
Most waste goes in one stream
The analysis also looked at other regular household waste streams. In Rotterdam, 6% of the examined waste was collected as organic waste, fruit and garden waste (gft), 0% as plastic, metal and drink cartons (pmd), 6% as paper and cardboard, 3% as glass and 1% as other smaller waste streams.
That 0% pmd figure needs context. In some municipalities, pmd is not collected separately at the source but is separated afterwards from residual waste. That kind of post-separation can strongly affect how the numbers appear, even when packaging is still being recovered later in the process.
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Gft, paper, glass and textiles are different, because these usually need to be separated by households before collection. In a dense city such as Rotterdam, that can be harder if bins are less convenient, homes are smaller or people are unsure which stream something belongs to.
The wider picture across Zuid-Holland shows large local differences. In some municipalities, less than one fifth of the examined regular household waste ends up as residual waste, while in others the share rises above 80%.
Local systems shape the numbers
Waste figures can look like a simple scoreboard, but the reality is messier. The amount of residual waste depends on housing type, high-rise buildings, gardens, tourism, post-separation and municipal waste policy.
That matters for Rotterdam, because the city combines high population density with many apartment buildings and neighbourhoods where separating waste can be less practical than in smaller towns. If a gft container is far away, unclear or unpleasant to use, banana peels and coffee grounds are more likely to end up in the general bin. Very glamorous, no. Very real, yes.
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The same applies to paper, glass and packaging. Better separation often starts with design: clear collection points, simple rules and systems that fit daily life. Asking people to separate waste is easier when the city makes the right choice feel like the obvious choice.
Still, household habits do matter. Your Kitchen points to small changes at home, especially in the kitchen, as a practical way to reduce residual waste.
Smaller bins can help
One suggestion is to stop using the most convenient or largest kitchen bin for residual waste. Instead, make residual waste the smallest container, so recyclable or compostable materials do not automatically disappear into the grey stream.
A small “doubt bin” can also help with packaging that is not immediately clear. Rather than throwing it straight into residual waste, you can check it later and sort it properly.
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For gft, visibility helps. A small closable container on the counter makes it easier to separate vegetable peelings, coffee grounds and food scraps immediately, rather than letting them slide into the general bin because it is quicker.
For Rotterdam, the numbers show that waste separation is not just a private household issue. It is also about how the city organises collection, how easy it is to use, and whether people can quickly understand where their waste should go.
How the figures were analysed
Your Kitchen analysed CBS figures on collected household waste per municipality. Bulky household residual waste and construction-related residual waste were excluded from the analysis.
The analysis focused on regular household waste streams, including household residual waste, gft, pmd, old paper and cardboard, glass and other smaller waste streams. The percentages show what share of the examined regular household waste was collected in each category.
The Your Kitchen website is available at https://yourkitchen.nl/. The CBS open data table used for household waste figures can be found at https://opendata.cbs.nl/#/CBS/nl/dataset/83452NED/table.
