The Filipstad company OLW’s production of chips and snacks is packaged annually in 80 million bags. Until now, the vast majority have been thrown in the regular household waste.
But from now on, consumers can get a deposit on the bags, which VK was the first to report.
Want to increase plastic recycling
– In Sweden, we are good at collecting and sorting aluminum and glass, but unfortunately quite bad at plastic. Large quantities are incinerated instead of being recycled. We hope that we can increase the amount of plastic collected by giving consumers a clearer incentive, says Sofia Johard, brand manager at OLW.
Åsa Stenmarck, plastics expert at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, says that it is difficult to judge what effect a chip bag pledge can have – but that all attempts to bring about a better collection are good.
– The bottle and can collection system has a very high return rate, and the fact that you want to transfer this to other products is positive. There are studies that show that you become more motivated to leave cheap packaging where it should be when there is a deposit, she says.
Can be donated to charity
The deposit for the bag of chips is obtained through an app – Bower – when you scan the barcode on the packaging during recycling and then send a message.
For each bag, the consumer receives five points, which corresponds to approximately 67 öre. The points can then be redeemed as coupons, which you can shop for.
The points can also be redeemed for money, which is deposited into the consumer’s account. Another option is to donate the points to charity directly via the app.
Several other companies are also already connected to the Bower app. Orkla, which is OLW’s parent company, has previously connected several other of its companies to the app.