This chapter discusses two episodes in the history of the Dutch policies with regard to efficient use of natural resources and waste management. The Netherlands is widely seen as a front-runner in the field of reuse and recycling but currently struggles with making the step to become a truly circular society. This chapter first looks how the Netherlands made a successful transition from a country largely relying on landfill and incineration to recycling in the 1980s and 1990s. Scandals with regard to illegal waste treatment and toxic emissions related to incineration created societal pressure and with this, a context allowing the Environment ministry to act. After this, the chapter covers the period after 2010, when internationally the concept of a Circular Economy gained traction. In this context, in 2016 the Netherlands launched an action plan which should lead to a fully circular Netherlands by 2050. Despite significant efforts in producing policy documents and creating monitoring systems, limited tangible results were realized. As the Ministry concludes itself when presenting its 2023 Circular Economy Action Plan: “More ambition is needed to make a circular economy a reality.” The recycling transition in the 1990s hence was successful, but the circularity transition in the current period not, or at least not yet. This difference in outcome can be attributed to various reasons. As opposed to improved waste management, circularity requires much more fundamental changes in production, design, and business practices as currently practiced in society. Such changes may need policies that are best implemented by major country blocks like the EU, instead of individual states. But equally important seems that the societal mandate to act present in the 1980s and 1990s currently lacks, which makes implementation of strong circularity policies difficult for even the best policy entrepreneurs.