Kai Realo, the head of Ragn-Sells, told the "Uudis+" program that the company can no longer offer the waste sorting service for free. "The amount of money we receive for waste disposal does not cover the whole chain, so we can continue to offer it to our customers for free," she said.

According to the company, the costs associated with providing waste hauling services have increased – fuel costs, labor costs, and investment in modern vehicles.

Realo added that Ragn-Sells used to pay for part of the transport. This involved collecting packaging in yellow bags from apartment blocks and private individuals.

The yellow packing bag service, where a company picks up a packing bag from your home, will become chargeable in early June.

"The yellow bag, its collection and disposal will cost the customer €2. For apartment buildings, there is already a different tariff for packaging containers, depending on the capacity of the container," she said.

Realo said that the price increase should not affect customers' sorting habits. "We can see that the people who have done it so far, and want to do it, don't think that a few euros added to the cost is so important."

Sorting does make sense, she added. "A lot of what we sort is used here in Europe; it finds a new form, which allows us to do less extraction and production of those original raw materials."

The collection of packaging waste will become a paid service in the following regions: the cities of Tallinn, Tartu and Maardu, the municipalities of Saue, Harku, Rae, Lääne-Harjumaa, Kiili, Jõelähtme and Kuusalu, the counties of Ida- and Lääne-Viru, and the municipalities of North-Pärnumaa and Tori.

Ragn-Sells will stop collecting packaging waste in the following areas: the city of Haapsalu, the municipalities of Jõgeva, Kanepi, Põlva, Kohila and Lääne-Nigula, and the city and municipality of Võru.

In the cities of Tartu and Pärnu, the collection of packaging waste is subject to the prices established within the framework of the procurement of organized waste collection.

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