Student - January 17, 2013

Dijkgraaf students stick to their guns

Students living at Dijkgraaf do not yet have to take their own garbage and waste paper out to the bins. The cleaners will carry on doing it. But not for ever.

While other Wageningen student flats accepted the new cleaning system without a fuss, the Dijkgraaf residents were vocal about their opposition to it in two surveys. They prefer to keep the waste disposal service and forego a 2.50 euro discount on their rent. The results confirm the impression given last year, when an Idealis experiment at Dijkgraaf was a flop: the residents just chucked their waste over the balcony.
Disappointed
Idealis is disappointed with the outcome, and expects the costs of cleaning to go up. That rise will be paid for by the residents. What is more, the housing provider thinks 'putting their waste in the containers is not too much to ask of the tenants.' Special bins have been provided for the purpose, and if students take paper out to them it doesn't pile up in the corridors.
Now that the residents are digging their heels in, Idealis is changing tack. The housing provider is going to change the rental contract. 'New tenants agree to take their rubbish out themselves when they sign their contracts,' a spokesman emails. 'In the long term we'll get the 70 percent we need that way. Once that has been reached, we will still introduce this way of working.'
Max Jonkman, spokesman for Dijkgraaf, has no problem with Idealis's decision. 'I don't think anyone with the current arrange­ment cares whether it is changed in the new contracts.'