How to get rid of stuff in Amsterdam

From the editor

What residents need to know

Where things go in Amsterdam

Every option in this guide, arranged by the thing you are getting rid of. A missing name is not a refusal. It means nobody has told us either way, which is worth asking about before you make the trip.

Amsterdam runs two systems at once and does not tell you which one you are on. Most of the city has a fixed weekly day with nothing to book; Centrum, Watergraafsmeer and Weesp must book, and putting it out unbooked there is a fine rather than a late collection. Look your own address up first.

Mattresses go out with the rest of the bulky waste on your street's own system. A Recyclepunt takes them too, though the business counter at the same yard does not.

Large appliances go out with the bulky collection or to a Recyclepunt. Small ones do not: the kerbside collection refuses them outright, and they go back to a shop instead, which is a legal right rather than a favour.

Refused by the kerbside collection entirely. A Recyclepunt takes them, and so does any shop over 400 square metres, with nothing bought, for anything under 25 centimetres.

Free at a Recyclepunt, and the kringloopwinkels will collect from your home if you have enough of it. The Netherlands is unusually far ahead here: producers have been legally responsible for textiles since 2023, with rising reuse and recycling targets.

Klein chemisch afval goes to a Recyclepunt. There is no chemokar in Amsterdam despite national guidance telling residents to look for one, and searching the city site for the word returns nothing at all.

Refused by the kerbside collection, accepted at a Recyclepunt. That is the general shape of the split here: the yard takes everything the kerb refuses, so a mixed load cannot usefully be divided between them.

Three districts have their own Friday collection for prunings, booked by email before Thursday lunchtime, and the deadline to put it out is 07:30 rather than the 07:00 that governs everything else. Elsewhere garden waste goes out with the bulky collection or to a Recyclepunt.

The words Amsterdam uses

These are the terms on the city's own pages. They stay in the local language here for the same reason they do on a form: the English version will not get you to the right page.

grofvuil

Bulky household waste, and the name of the collection. The word hides the thing that matters: Amsterdam runs two grofvuil systems at once, one booked and one on a fixed weekly day, and which one applies depends on your address rather than on your choice.

Afvalwijzer

The city's per-address waste lookup, and the only place that tells you which grofvuil system your street is on. The city's own fines page says the rules that govern your fine are in the Afvalwijzer rather than on the general page, which is as close to an admission as you will get.

Recyclepunt

The municipal drop-off yard, seven of them. It takes everything the kerbside collection refuses, which makes it a strict superset rather than an alternative. There is none in Centrum, West or Zuid.

Afvalpunt

The old name for a Recyclepunt. The rename is complete: searching the city site for it returns nothing relevant, so use Recyclepunt when you ask.

milieustraat

What the rest of the Netherlands calls a municipal tip. Amsterdam does not use it, and it finds nothing on the city site.

KCA

Klein chemisch afval, household hazardous waste: paint, solvents, batteries, medicines. It goes to a Recyclepunt. Do not go looking for a chemokar, which national guidance mentions and Amsterdam does not run.

kringloopwinkel

A second-hand shop that takes donations, and in Amsterdam several will collect from your home for free if you have enough to make the trip worth it. The thresholds are real: one wants ten bags or a single item over 25 kilos.

afvalstoffenheffing

The annual household waste charge, 352 euros for one person and 469 for a household in 2026. It is worth knowing because it is the reason the collection feels free at the point of use: you have already paid.

grofafspraak

Shorthand for the booked half of the system. If your address is in Centrum, Watergraafsmeer or Weesp, putting bulky waste out without an appointment is not an early collection, it is a 110 euro fine.

snoeiafval

Garden prunings. Three districts have a separate collection for it, booked by email before Thursday lunchtime, and it is the only email-booked municipal waste service in this whole guide.

Things that catch people out

• Look your address up in the Afvalwijzer before anything else. Amsterdam runs two grofvuil systems at once, and the city does not tell you which one you are on unless you ask it per address.
• About four in five residential addresses are on a fixed weekly day with nothing to book. The rest, Centrum, Watergraafsmeer and Weesp, must book an appointment.
• Centrum is two routes rather than one. The Jordaan, the Haarlemmerbuurt, the western canal ring and the Burgwallen are collected Tuesday and Friday; the southern canal ring, Nieuwmarkt, the Plantage and the Oostelijke Eilanden are Monday and Thursday.
• Watergraafsmeer's appointment area covers places nobody living there would call Watergraafsmeer, including Science Park, Betondorp, Park de Meer and Omval. Check the address rather than the district name.
• On the booked system, putting bulky waste out without an appointment is a 110 euro fine rather than a missed collection. For a business it is 550.
• Put it out from 21:00 the evening before, and it must be outside by 07:00 on the day. Too early is an explicit trigger for the fine.
• One street is an hour tighter. The Albert Cuyp market stretch has a 06:00 deadline so the traders can set up, and that rule appears nowhere on the city's own pages, only in the address lookup for those postcodes.
• Two cubic metres per occasion, which is roughly two metres by one by one.
• The kerbside collection refuses small electricals, iron, cardboard, rubble, KCA, flat glass, tyres and soil. A Recyclepunt takes all of them, so it is a strict superset rather than an alternative.
• There is no Recyclepunt in Centrum, West or Zuid. Bring your passport or ID and something showing you live in Amsterdam.
• Small electricals go back to a shop, not to the kerb. Anything under 25 centimetres can be handed in at a shop over 400 square metres with nothing bought.
• There is no at-home collection for people who cannot carry things down. We looked for one three ways, including under care and support rather than waste, and the city's own published answer is to ask a friend, a relative or the neighbours, or to borrow a car or a cargo bike.
• Two Recyclepunten lend an electric cargo bike free, booked two working days ahead for a half-day slot. You must be 18, it is for your own bulky waste only, and you bring it back clean.
• Garden prunings in Nieuw-West, Noord and West have their own Friday collection, booked by email before Thursday 13:00, and the deadline to put it out is 07:30 rather than 07:00.
• This is a transition, not a settled system. The city says it will extend the appointment model to the rest of Amsterdam from the end of 2027, district by district, so the list of booked areas only grows. Checked August 2026.

What it costs in Amsterdam

What each option charges, in its own words, with the date we last read it. We publish no price of our own: a number we typed would go stale before the sentence it came from did.

• Barcelona 5 options·4 free·Checked 18 Aug 2026
• Berlin 8 options·5 free·Checked 20 Aug 2026
• Lisbon 6 options·6 free·Checked 18 Aug 2026