THOUSANDS of residents will receive a free starch bag from Kirklees Council.
Councillors decided this week to send the carriers to every home in south Huddersfield.
Unlike normal plastic carriers, the bags can be composted within a year.
In December councillors passed a motion promising to make Kirklees plastic bag free.
And on Tuesday the council’s Huddersfield South Area Committee, which covers Almondbury, Newsome, Crosland Moor, Netherton and Dalton, agreed to spend £2,500 to deliver starch bags to every home in the area, along with flyers about the plastic bag free campaign.
Clr Ann Denham, who is leading the drive to get rid of plastic carriers in Kirklees, said: “We have to make a start and get on with it.”
The Almondbury Lib-Dem wants to encourage people to use so-called bags for life.
But Clr Denham sees compostable bags as a good halfway house.
She said: “The starch bag is an intermediate alternative to the plastic bag. You can put your food peelings in the bag and leave it in the compost. In six to 12 months the whole lot disappears.
“By contrast, every single piece of plastic ever manufactured is still with us – and will be for a long time yet.”
Clr Denham also wants schools in the area to help design a logo for the starch bags.
And she told the area committee she had been talking to supermarkets in the area about the plastic bag free campaign.
Clr Denham said: “The way to promote this is to bring the town centre retailers on board. I’ve already spoken to Tesco and Sainsbury who are the biggest distributors of plastic bags.”
The campaign officially begins with a stall at Huddersfield Farmers’ Market on April 13.
People in Kirklees use 115m plastic bags a year.
They can take between 500 and 1,000 years to break down in the environment.
