Underground containers in Scheveningen, Segbroek and Laak

Published: 31 March 2011 Modified: 04 January 2012

Underground rubbish containers will be placed in densely populated neighbourhoods with low- and high-rise buildings in Scheveningen in 2012. Parts of Segbroek, Laak and Haagse Hout will follow suit in 2014. Some 1,500 extra undergroun d containers represent part of the municipality’s plans to fight street litter as a result of torn garbage bags.

‘We want The Hague to be a clean city,’ explained Deputy Mayor Sander Dekker (Finance and City Management). ‘To achieve this, we need to rid the city’s streets of garbage bags, which attract seagulls, cats, dogs and rats with their tasty leftovers. The animals rip the bags open and in no time the whole street is full of rubbish.’

Densely populated neighbourhoods don’t offer much space for residents to keep their rubbish so that animals can’t get to it. Underground containers should solve this problem. A pilot in Escamp, which now has 755 underground containers in use, shows that there is less street litter. There are some 2,000 underground rubbish containers in Escamp, Transvaal and the Stations- en Rivierenbuurt.

The plan to place an additional 1,500 containers in Scheveningen in 2012 and in Segbroek and Laak in 2014 will cost more than € 15 million. It will be covered by the revenue from the waste tax. It will not be necessary to raise the waste tax.

Space for parking

Because the underground containers take up space otherwise used for parking, the Municipal Executive first studied whether there was sufficient space for parking in the neighbourhood. This was the case in parts of Segbroek (around the power station, Koningsplein and Valkenboskwartier); Scheveningen (Bad, Visserijbuurt, Rijslag, Belgisch Park and around the Sweelinckplein) and Laak (Spoorwijk, Laakhaven Oost en West).

In other neighbourhoods a study will be conducted to see if there is already sufficient space for parking or whether paid parking should be introduced in order to free up more space.

Visit the Dutch-language municipal site in order to read more about the project.