A vacuum cleaner made largely from recycled soda bottle caps and other discarded vacuum cleaners. It has recently been for sale in Friesland. The plastics processing company AKG has developed the product in collaboration with Philips. 

Household waste from the Frisian population is used for the production of the vacuum cleaner. The device is currently only available in the Drachten region.

“It is not specifically intended for an environmentally conscious target group,” says Eelco Smit of Philips. “The product simply has to be of good quality and user-friendly.” The Eindhoven company is also working on a coffee machine made from recycled material.

Fourth place

In the Netherlands, 51 percent of household waste is collected separately. This puts it in fourth place in Europe. Germany scores highest with 65 percent, followed by Austria (62 percent) and Belgium (57 percent). The Dutch target is to achieve a percentage of 60 to 65 this year.

According to calculations of Milieu Centraal it is theoretically possible to recycle 81 percent of household waste. (Source: NOS.nl)