Plastic bag use declines sharply in Switzerland

There has been a sharp decline in the consumption of single-use disposable plastic bags and reusable plastic bags in the Swiss retail sector. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox A total of 417,781,000 single-use plastic bags were distributed in 2016 in Switzerland; this figure fell to 51,121,067 last year, a drop of 88%, according to the Swiss Retail Federation on Monday. Meanwhile, between 2020 and 2024, the consumption of reusable plastic bags fell from 48,846,092 to 16,214,871 units, a drop of 65%. This reduction is due in particular to two agreements signed in 2016 and 2019 between the Retail Community of Interest (CI) and the Swiss Retail Federation. The aim was to reduce the consumption of single-use disposable plastic bags from 70% to 80% by the end of 2025, and the consumption of reusable plastic bags by 35%. + Why don’t the Swiss recycle more plastic? These targets were easily met. Since then, plastic bag consumption has stabilised at a low level.