Cyprus had the fourth largest consumption of plastic bags in the EU in 2022, according to data on lightweight plastic carrier bags (LPCBs) published by Eurostat on Tuesday.
The figures reveal the use of such bags dropped by 14 per cent compared to 2021 due to measures promoted by the member states.
Among the EU countries with available data, the countries that reported the highest use of LPCBs per person in 2022 were Lithuania (249 bags per person), Latvia (193) and Czechia (185).
Cyprus was in fourth place with 166 plastic bags per person. The use of bags with a thickness of less than 15 microns stood at 82.3 per person, the usage of bags with thickness between 15 and 49 microns stood at 83.8 per person.
The majority of consumption in the first three countries related to very lightweight plastic carrier bags (VLPCBs), that is bags with a thickness of less than 15 micrometres (microns).
The countries that reported the lowest consumption were Belgium (4 bags per person), Poland (7) and Portugal (13).
Across the EU in 2022, each person used on average 66.6 lightweight plastic carrier bags. This marked a decrease of 10.8 bags (-14 per cent) per person compared with 2021. In total, 29.8 billion lightweight plastic carrier bags were used across the EU in 2022, marking a decrease of 4.7 billion bags from 2021.
All EU countries have consumption reduction measures in place as required by the Plastic Bags Directive, which aims to reduce the consumption of LPCBs to not exceed 40 bags per person by 31 December 2025 (this target does not include VLPCBs).
