Cyprus ranks fourth in the European Union for the use of plastic bags. There are 166 packages per resident annually. Data published by Eurostat and refer to 2022.
Counted by the number of free bags from supermarkets
The statistics refer to thin plastic bags with a wall thickness of less than 50 microns, with or without a handle. They are usually available to customers at all retail outlets free of charge.
Usage is declining
Figures show that the use of such packages has decreased by 14% compared to 2021 thanks to measures taken by EU states. Among the EU countries where the use of these packages was highest were Lithuania (249 packages per person year), Latvia (193 packages) and the Czech Republic (185 packages).
The lowest figure is in Belgium
Cyprus came in fourth place with 166 plastic bags per person per year. The countries reporting the lowest consumption were Belgium (4 packets per person), Poland (7 packets) and Portugal (13 packets).
The majority of consumption is from very lightweight plastic bags (VLPCB), that is, bags with a wall thickness of less than 15 microns. In Cyprus, there are 82.3 VLPCB and 83.8 LPCB per inhabitant.
Over the year - almost 30 billion pieces
In EU countries, there was an average of 66.6 lightweight plastic bags per inhabitant. Compared to 2021, the number of such packages decreased by 10.8 (-14%) per person. A total of 29.8 billion lightweight plastic bags were used in the EU in 2022, which is 4.7 billion less than in 2021.
Not all plastic is banned
All EU countries have taken measures to reduce the consumption of such products in accordance with the requirements of the Plastic Bag Directive, which aims to reduce LPCB to a level of no more than 40 packages per person by 31 December 2025. VLPCBs are not covered by the directive.
The text was prepared based on materials from the Eurostat publication
Important to know:
Plastic bags are one type of litter that causes serious harm to turtles. Animals swallow them and die. The insides of the dead turtles were analyzed by a group of scientists led by Professor Emily Duncan from the University of Exeter (UK). In more than 40% of cases, the turtles' stomachs contained large pieces of plastic. Read more in our material “What do turtles swallow by mistake?”
In 2023, the Herald of Cyprus wrote that supermarkets that would sell thin plastic bags at checkouts were expected to be fined 150-250 euros. However, experts disagree about the appropriateness of this ban.
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