site.btaBulgaria Remains Fifth in EU in Use of Plastic Bags

Each person living in the EU used an average of 66.6 lightweight plastic (LPCB) bags in 2022, Eurostat data show. This reflects a decrease of an average of 10.8 bags (14%) per person compared to 2021. A total of 29.8 billion plastic bags were consumed in the EU in 2022, a decrease of 4.7 billion bags compared to 2021.

The average number of used bags per capita in Bulgaria in 2022 was 131.6, which represents a decrease from the average used in 2021 (160.2) by nearly 18%.

Bulgaria is one of the countries that does not provide data on the thickness of bags used.

Among the EU countries which have presented data, the countries reporting the highest consumption of lightweight plastic bags per person in 2022 were Lithuania (249 bags per person), Latvia (193) and the Czechia (185), with most of the consumption being very light bags with a wall thickness of less than 15 micrometers (microns). In this ranking, Bulgaria is in fifth place in the EU after Cyprus (162.4 bags) and maintained the same position in 2022 as it did in 2021.

In contrast, the countries reporting the lowest consumption were Belgium (4 bags per person), Poland (7) and Portugal (13).

All EU countries already have measures in place to reduce consumption as required by the Plastic Bags Directive, which aims to reduce consumption of LPCBs to no more than 40 bags per person by December 31, 2025.

Differences in per capita consumption were mainly due to differences in the effectiveness of measures influenced by economic, social and political factors, Eurostat experts explained.

In addition, some countries have implemented measures to reduce consumption in 2018–2022, while others have implemented them for a longer period. A third factor is the use of different calculation methods in EU countries.