On March 2, 2015 Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that all EU Member States approved new rules regarding plastic bag use. Member States are now required to reduce their usage of single-use plastic bags by 80% by the end of 2025, but are given a choice on how to reach this goal. Member States are allowed to introduce a plastic bag tax or even ban single-use plastic bags at national level altogether. According to the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), every EU citizen uses on average almost 200 plastic bags per year. The use of plastic bags, however, varies greatly across the EU. In Denmark and Finland, for instance, each person uses only four plastic bags every year. By contrast, 460 plastic bags are used per person per year in Poland, Portugal and Slovakia.
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Deutsche Welle (March 2, 2015). “EU seeks to reduce plastic bag usage.”
