Five years after the Bundestag passed a plastic bag ban, environmentalists are calling for the regulations to be tightened.
The regulation has significantly reduced the use of plastic bags in retail, but there are still far too many single-use plastic bags in circulation, said Viola Wohlgemuth from German Environmental Aid (DUH).
On November 26, 2020, the German Bundestag voted for a law that banned the previously common plastic supermarket shopping bags from January 2022. It was about plastic packaging with a wall thickness of 15 and 50 micrometers. The small, thin bags for fruit and vegetables remained permitted.
Wohlgemuth criticizes the fact that some retailers still offer plastic bags at their checkouts. “They are only slightly thicker than 50 micrometers and are therefore not subject to the ban – that is legal, but pretty bold.” The bags are disposable, they break quickly and quickly become garbage. The ban should be extended to wall thicknesses of up to 100 micrometers or more, said Wohlgemuth. “Only then is a plastic bag so robust that repeated use is realistic.”
India took a tougher approach than Germany
Germany should follow India’s example, where plastic bags with a thickness of up to 120 micrometers are banned. “We should be able to do that in Germany,” says Wohlgemuth. The environmentalist emphasizes that when all plastic bags are used, tiny particles are rubbed off and end up in the landscape. They didn’t break down there. Such particles entered the body through the air, water and food and were harmful to health.
For several years now, retailers have increasingly relied on thick plastic bags or fabric bags that are intended for multiple use. However, Wohlgemuth warns that this packaging is too cheap and people buy too many of them.
“You go shopping and forget the bag at home – so you buy another one even though your kitchen cupboard at home is already full of such bags and sachets,” says the environmentalist. In order to reduce the amount of bags and pouches in circulation, a deposit and return system should be introduced. “Just like you put the beer bottle in the machine, you should also be able to return plastic bags and cloth bags.”
Plastic bags have been on the decline for a long time
The plastic bags that were previously used on a massive scale were gradually becoming obsolete even before the legal ban. In 2016, the trade association committed itself, without any legal obligation, to charging for 80 percent of plastic bags within two years – meaning they should no longer be given out for free at the checkout. The supermarket chain Rewe went further and banned plastic bags from its stores, replacing them with paper bags, cardboard boxes and reusable bags.
According to the European Statistics Office (Eurostat), a German citizen used an average of 57.2 plastic bags in 2018, which are a maximum of 50 micrometers thick – so we’re talking about the bags that are banned today and the very thin ones that are still allowed "Shirt tote bags" for fruits and vegetables. In 2021 it was 38.4 and in 2023 it was only 30.9. In a European comparison, Germany is doing well; in the Czech Republic, Spain and Bulgaria, for example, many more plastic bags are produced per capita.
Retail industry emphasizes benefits of voluntary measures
Looking back, the trade association rates the industry path as a success story. “The voluntary commitment, even before the legal obligation, makes it clear that the retail industry is serious about its efforts in environmental protection and sustainability,” says HDE managing director Antje Gerstein. The voluntary commitment has massively reduced the consumption of thin plastic bags. Experience shows that consumers accept the alternatives offered well. Companies are constantly working to make their products and packaging more sustainable and more recyclable.
The plastics industry is also satisfied with the alternatives offered. “Plastic has established itself as an almost ideal solution for reusable applications,” says the managing director of Plastics Europe Germany, Christine Bunte. “A robust bag made from recycled plastic is not only practical, but often has a better ecological balance than many alternatives such as fabric bags.” Bunte points to studies that show that reusable plastic bags have a better ecological balance than a single-use bag after being used five to twenty times. This makes these robust plastic bags better than cotton bags, which have to be used more often before their ecological balance is better than a disposable plastic bag.
Bundestag member Julia Schneider from the Green Party now considers it self-evident to reuse carrier bags for shopping. “Many citizens are already reusing more instead of throwing away in their everyday lives.” Schneider points to summer 2026 – when EU regulations on packaging will apply, which should reduce the amount of plastic even further. The opposition politician is calling on the federal government to use these EU regulations as an opportunity to make reusables the standard and advance the circular economy.