Plastic bag bans: Studies reveal divergent impacts in EU and US as campaigners call for harsher measures

The repealed plastic bag ban in Texas, US, led to some less-sustainable consumer choices, but had a positive impact overall. In the EU, the use of lightweight plastic bags dropped by 4.7 billion in a year following binding legislation, but campaigners say that more can be done. These disparate outcomes are reflected in a new study from the University of Riverside, California.

Dr. Hai Che, a lead author on the study,  examines policies against single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other retail outlets in Austin and Dallas, Texas. The policies in question were all eventually repealed.

“The most significant finding is that when policy is repealed, consumers might revert back to their pre-implementation behavior. In our case, after the plastic bag ban was repealed, consumers started using free check-out plastic bags again and stopped buying small trash bags,” Che tells Packaging Insights.

“However, even if consumers reverted back to their previous behavior, the policy was not in vain. In our research, as long as there was a very modest reduction in check-out bag usage, there would be a net decrease in plastic usage and benefit the environment.”

In the EU, the use of such bags dropped drastically between 2021 and 2022 newly released data from Eurostat has revealed. 

Gaëlle Haut, EU affairs coordinator at Surfrider Foundation Europe, tells us on behalf of the Rethink Plastic alliance: “The reduction observed in the EU is the result of the adoption of binding legislation that has brought all the member states on board and obliged them to take measures to achieve this reduction. However, we can only regret that this reduction is still insufficient.”

US policy results

Che’s study published in the Journal of Marketing Research found an increase in sales of plastic bags after the cities prohibited stores from giving away free plastic bags for carrying home groceries. He argues that when banning plastic bags, “policymakers need to be aware that there could be negative spillover effects.”

“In our case, we found consumers previously used free checkout bags as cash can liners, and thus, when plastic bags are banned, they would start buying small trash bags. Thus, when implementing certain policies, policymakers need to be aware of such spillover effects and provide alternatives to consumers, such as reusable bags.”

“It can be argued that consumers’ reusing of free checkout bags as cash can liners is a green behavior because they buy fewer small trash bags. Thus, policy makers need to carefully assess the net effect of their policy on the environment.”

Dr. Hai Che, marketing professor at the University of California, Riverside, US (Image credit: UC Riverside).Discussing if he is aware of examples of jurisdictions where plastic bag bans have worked without leading to negative spillover effects, Che responds: “We actually also looked at other states, although the results were not presented in the paper. The negative spillover effects are prevalent.”

“Consumers are in general supportive of pro-environmental policies, but they need alternatives when options are taken away. We find consumers value convenience.”

Overall, Che explains that the study’s findings should not be interpreted as an argument against plastic bag restrictions. “As we show in the break-even analysis, consumers actually only use a few free trash bags every few trips; the net effect of policy on plastic bag reduction is going to be positive.”

“This means plastic bag bans were not entirely ineffective even if they were repealed. Consumers are pro-environment protection, and there is little evidence that it is hugely inconvenient for them when free bags are unavailable.”

EU Plastic Bag Directive

New data from the EU’s Eurostat shows that in 2022, the average EU resident used 66.6 lightweight plastic carrier bags on average. This is a decrease of 10.8 bags (-14%) per person compared with 2021. 

The Rethink Plastics alliance’s Haut says that there are “still too many single-use plastic carrier bags in the EU while we know plastic bags are a plague to the ocean, the environment and our economy, and given a large number of reusable alternatives to single-use bags available.” 

“This is an excellent signal as INC-5 gets underway that binding measures enshrined in law are making a real difference and are ultimately leading to a reduction in the use of single-use plastics. But these results could have been much higher if the EU had chosen to ban all single-use plastic bags, including so-called very light bags.”

The Rethink Plastic alliance is critical of the Plastic Bag Directive because, Haut says, it has “left the door open for some private players to ask national governments for derogations for their products is of high concern.”

Some member states have limited the scope of their measures by excluding certain shops.“This has allowed for the continued use of some single-use plastic bags, irrespective of the many impacts they have. Among these, are to be mentioned: the fact that some member states have limited the scope of their measures by excluding certain shops — mainly small shops and, more worryingly, outdoor markets,” she continues.

She states that the directive’s exemption of very lightweight plastic carrier bags and biodegradable bags, as well as the shift to single use paper bags have altered the bill’s environmental impacts.

“We call on the member states to remove exemptions on biodegradable and biobased plastic bags and adopt measures applying to all bags — in particular, very lightweight plastic bags in all shops and outdoor markets.”

“Member states must seize their awareness-raising obligations under the Single-use Plastic Directive to raise awareness and adopt measures comprehensively addressing all uses of plastic bags.”

Haut explains that in some EU countries, reusable plastic bags are being used as single-use replacements and that some retailers have been shown to simply slightly heighten the thickness of their plastic bags to cross the threshold from “single-use” to “reusable” plastic bags without actually achieving a significant decrease in the total number of bags used.

“Our position is clear: a ban on all single-use plastic bags together with accompanying measures for thicker plastic bags will remain the best option to protect the environment and our health from pollution. This option is indisputably the most effective,” she concludes.