For a couple of years now, KSRR, the Kalmar region cleaners, has been distributing green bags for food waste free of charge to its customers. Now the green bag is likely to be joined by a red bag. From May next, KSRR wants to start distributing bags for regular waste - free of charge.

More expensive plastic bags

The background is that the amount of loose, unsorted waste contained in the garbage can is increasing. A lot of waste is also sorted into the wrong bags: Ordinary combustible household waste often ends up in the green food waste bag.

KSRR believes that a drama in the drama is that the plastic bags from the grocery store that the garbage is often thrown in have become more expensive. Next year, a new tax will also be introduced on plastic carrier bags, which means that a regular plastic bag in the grocery store can cost up to seven SEK:

- Then the carrying bags become so expensive that we have every reason to believe that you will not buy those bags when you go and shop to the same extent anymore. It is all about gouging olle in the gate, says Ulrika Bergström, communicator at KSRR.

Cheap bags break

Expensive plastic bags mean that people buy cheaper variants instead, which also causes problems when disposing of:

- It's all about these garbage bags you buy on a roll in a store. In general, they are very thin and our experience is that they break so easily in our sorting, and then we have the problem of loose waste again, says Ulrika Bergström.

"Do not want to encourage plastic use"

The idea is that the new red bags should be distributed in the same way as today's green bag: For apartment households, the property owner is responsible for there being bags to pick up, for private households the garbage truck delivers new rolls.

The idea of ​​making the plastic bag more expensive in stores was to reduce the amount of plastic for the sake of the environment. How does this fit this idea?

- Since the bag in this case is a waste carrier, it is a completely different area of ​​use. We have to deal with the waste. The biggest problem we see is that people put the wrong waste in their bags. If you remove all packaging from the residual waste, there will be much fewer bags. It's about having a change in behavior in general.

Decisions on free plastic bags will be introduced at KSRR's Federal Executive on Friday.