Portugal was included in the list of EU countries that used plastic bags the least in 2021. Consumption was lowest in Belgium with five units per person, followed by Portugal with nine units and then Sweden with 16 units.
The countries that reported the highest consumption of plastic bags per person were Lithuania (271 per person), Latvia (204) and the Czech Republic (189), European Union statistics body Eurostat said on Tuesday.
In 2021, each person in the European Union (EU) consumed an average of 77 plastic bags, which is 11 bags per person per year less than in 2020. In total, 34.2 billion plastic bags were consumed in the EU in 2020. 2021, or 4.8 billion less compared to 2020
The wide variation observed in per capita consumption is mainly due to differences in the effectiveness of policies to promote alternative packaging depending on the economic, social and political factors present in each country.
There are countries that only introduced consumption reduction measures between 2018 and 2021, but others, such as Portugal, have had measures in place for longer.