With an Optibag plant, you get a proven system that reports clear economic and environmental benefits – that has unique flexibility and expansion potential. With an Optibag sorting system you get the most efficient and thus most profitable solution on the market.

If the sorting requirements are to be modified with new waste categories, additional bags in new colors can easily be added, e.g. textiles. The system can also be adjusted to an individual follow-up and feedback on sorted fractions which can be the basis of individual rates. This flexibility means that with an Optibag solution, you get a unique preparedness for the future. No matter what requirements that may be decided, the system can be adapted to these new conditions.

Municipalities that own or are affiliated with an Optibag plant have a lower total collection cost, compared to municipalities with other collection options.

This by:

• Only one curbside bin is used for all waste categories and no new bins or extra waste collection trucks are required.
• Pick up is normally performed every two weeks, which are 50% fewer routes than other collection options.
• All existing waste collection trucks can be retained and not replaced.

This provides great opportunities for efficient planning of transport logistics and a reduced CO₂.

Only those municipalities that don’t have increased source sorting have a lower collection cost.

Collection costs depend on the structure of a municipality (number of households, multi-family residential, etc.) and the amount of other household waste – but with optical sorting, efficiency is the highest.

Optibags system is efficient, hygienic, modern and easy to introduce:

• There are no major changes to existing collection routines, bins or waste collection trucks.
• The households’ curbside bins are kept and utilized more efficiently, because the same bin is used for all fractions (food, plastic, metal, etc.).
• The waste is well-sealed in bags that prevent bad odors, insect problems and freezing of bags in winter.

The objective for Sweden and the EU is that 50% of all household waste should be recycled by 2020.  Municipalities with optical sorting already meet the environmental objectives for food, paper, plastic, newspapers and metal. The objectives for food waste can be difficult to achieve, however statistics from all over the Nordic countries show that the amount of collected food waste per person is at least 50% in cases where an Optibag system has been chosen.

When we talk about collected food waste we mean: Total sorted food waste in the municipality, divided by the total number of residents in the municipality.

Sweden’s national collection target for food waste applies to all households in a municipality. Not just “connected households” – such calculations gives completely different comparisons, because they exclude households that do not participate in source separation.

Eskilstuna Strängnäs Energi & Miljö AB, which has chosen the Optibag system, has conducted several customer surveys. The latest survey shows that customer satisfaction has increased and that over 83% consider color separation of packaging and food waste to be good and convenient.

Some quotes from users:

“I think waste collection with the colorful bags is great, because we only need to sort in bags and put everything in the same bin.”

“Color sorting feels so right and simple.”