ICER 2023: Circular targets remain out of reach The Netherlands aims to have a fully circular economy by 2050 and halve its use of raw materials by 2030. In recent years, however, little progress has been made in either regard.
RIVM describes building blocks of future-proof soil strategy Soil use is becoming increasingly intensive. From use for agriculture and housing construction to recreation and infrastructure. At the same time, we also depend on the soil-watersystem for a healthy living environment, restore biodiversity, countering climate change, energy transition, absorption of rainwater and keeping groundwater clean.
Circular economy: plastics recycling from end-of-life vehicles could be four times higher At present, 85% of plastics from end-of-life vehicles is still incinerated. Only 15% of plastics is reused as a raw material. A survey conducted by RIVM has revealed possibilities to expand recovery of these plastics fourfold by 2030.
Brazilian coronavirus variants (P1 and P2) found in the Netherlands Two new variants of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have been found in the Netherlands, both originating from Brazil.
Last winter’s flu epidemic was short and mild. And then COVID-19 arrived. The flu epidemic in the winter of 2019/2020 was mild and lasted only 5 weeks.
UK variant gains ground in the Netherlands In the past week, from 20 to 26 January, the reported number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 decreased slightly, dropping by 8%.
Rise in new COVID-19 variants overshadows more positive developments A moderately positive overview in the number of newly reported people who tested positive for COVID-19 can be observed in the Netherlands in the week of 13 to 19 January, as an effect of the lockdown that started on 15 December.
Tentative decrease becomes visible For the second week in a row, the number of newly reported COVID-19 infections decreased somewhat. The percentage of people who tested positive for COVID-19 decreased slightly, dropping from 13.7% to 12.8%.
South African coronavirus variant found in the Netherlands The South African variant of the coronavirus (501Y.V2) has been identified in the Netherlands for the first time.
Update on the spread of the UK coronavirus variant (VOC 202012/01) in the Netherlands The number of people that have been found to have the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variant designated VOC 202012/01 (the UK variant) has risen from 11 to nearly 50 individuals.