Belgians use 4 plastic bags per year. This figure comes from Eurostat's 2023 report. Latvia is at 209. Both countries are in the EU and both subject to the same directive.
Eurostat has been tracking this data since 2018. That year the EU average was 95. By 2023 it dropped to 65. Sweden had the biggest decline, reducing by 131 bags over five years. But Sweden also started from a high baseline. Lithuania was at 396 in 2018, now 124, a significant drop, but still far from the EU target of 40.
Why can Belgium achieve 4? Their waste collection fees are calculated by volume. Throw away more, pay more. Plastic bags are included in the calculation. Poland at 7, Portugal at 14. These countries have all met the target. But what's going on with Latvia's 209? The report doesn't explain it clearly. It could be different statistical methods, or it could just be high usage.
Ireland's story has been told many times. On March 4, 2002, they imposed a 15 euro cent tax. Before that, 1.2 billion bags were in circulation annually, 328 per capita. Once the tax was imposed, consumption dropped 90% within a few months, per capita became 21. The Revenue Commissioners collected 3.5 million euros in the first quarter. By 2006, per capita climbed back to around 30. The government raised the tax to 22 euro cents in July 2007. This rate hasn't changed since. Cork City Council's website shows 22 cent.
Denmark took a different route. Starting in 1994, they taxed retailers, not consumers. Retailers either absorb the cost themselves or pass it on to customers. Most chose to pass it on. By 2014, Danes used around 4 per capita. At that time it was the lowest in Europe. Now Belgium is lower.
China's situation is complex. The "plastic restriction order" of June 1, 2008 banned ultra-thin bags thinner than 0.025 millimeters and required supermarkets to provide other plastic bags for a fee. A survey cited by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2016 said bags in supermarkets and shopping centers decreased by more than two-thirds. But research published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2021 (in the journal Waste Management) pointed out a problem: the free inner bags used for wrapping vegetables and fruits in supermarkets actually increased in usage. The paid outer bags decreased, the free inner bags increased, the net effect was discounted. In 2020, the NDRC and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued new regulations requiring major cities' supermarkets to stop using non-degradable bags by year-end. Shanghai went further in 2021, simply prohibiting supermarkets from providing any plastic shopping bags, only allowed to sell cloth bags and nylon bags, ranging from 1 to 39 yuan.
Rwanda banned them completely in 2008. Production, import, sale, use all banned. Heavy fines, $500 for individuals, $40,000 for businesses. Luggage checks at borders. Kigali has indeed become cleaner, this has been reported many times by foreign journalists. In October 2019, they extended the ban to all single-use plastics.
Kenya followed in August 2017. Before that there were 176 plastic bag factories, 60,000 workers. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) supported a study that found over half of cattle in urban peripheries had plastic bags in their stomachs. UNEP said Kenyan supermarkets issued 100 million bags a year. The ban's fines are as heavy as Rwanda's. Eight months later officials said it was effective. Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan later issued similar bans.
The US has no federal law. California banned thin bags in 2014, New York banned them later too. Other states haven't moved. How many do Americans use per year? The commonly cited figure is 365, from the Center for Biological Diversity. The EPA's 2018 data said that year generated 4.2 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps, recycled 420,000 tons, recycling rate around 10%.
Australia has no national legislation. Two major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, decided on their own in 2018 not to provide single-use bags. Three months later consumption dropped 80%. This data is on Wikipedia, citing news reports at the time.
Indonesia's Ministry of Environment 2020 data said 10 billion plastic bags enter the environment directly each year, approximately 85,000 tons. In Jakarta in 2019, 34% of waste was plastic. The government says it wants to reduce marine plastic pollution by 70% by 2025. But there's no nationwide plastic bag ban. Some cities have started charging fees, implementation is questionable.
The EU's target of 40 bags is for the end of 2025. Currently averaging 65. Some countries have met the target long ago, some countries probably won't meet it by then either. Eurostat's report says that part of the reason for such large differences in national data is different statistical methods, and it cannot be completely ruled out that some extreme figures are caused by methodological issues.
