Some Amsterdammers are so fed up with the filth on the city streets that a group of them are threatening to stop paying the council’s rubbish collection fees.

In a letter to the Parool, Amsterdammer Stefan van Raaij said the capital had become “one of the filthiest in the world” and a “rubbish dump” compared to other cities.

Van Raaij, whose letter was signed by 38 people including writer and journalist Adriaan van Dis, cited vandalised rubbish bins in the centre of the city, and areas where not rubbish is collected at all, such as the Passeerdersgracht.

Inadequate containers in the Helmers area in Oud-West result in rubbish piling up and blocking the road, he said, creating “daily blockades caused by mountains of waste”.

Van Raaij and his fellow protesters said they are no longer interested in the causes of the problem, “be it the half-baked privatisation of the rubbish collection services or the paralysis that is preventing the deposit problem from being tackled”.

Ridiculing the promise of a clean city as far into the future as 2050, he said the council “lacked urgency” and called on fellow Amsterdammers to consider no longer paying their annual rubbish collection fees.

“We pay our money but we get nothing in return. Rats and seagulls flourish on this rubbish dump, a danger to public health. (..) There is nothing  left but to go on  strike, because after all, things can’t get any filthier than this,” Van Raaij concluded his letter.

Ideas

Earlier this month the city hosted the final meeting of a “citizens consultation process” to come up with new ways of solving the waste collection problem.

After six sessions, the group voted in favour of several plans to tackle the rubbish mountain, including a public information campaign featuring a mascot, using cars with scanners to monitor the problem and to set up a mini-recycling centre in every neighbourhood.

The Parool has now appealed for other Amsterdammers to share their photos and thoughts on the city’s rubbish collection service via hethoogstewoord@parool.nl.