Every year, on July 3rd, International Plastic Bag Free Day is marked across the world. It was launched in 2009 by environmental organizations and later supported by the global movement Break Free from Plastic, founded in 2016. The aim of this day is to raise awareness of the harm caused by single-use plastics to nature and human health, and to encourage societies to move toward sustainable solutions.
Although plastic bags and sachets are used for only a few minutes, they remain in the environment for decades—or even centuries—breaking down into microplastics that pollute soil, water, and air, threaten plant and animal life, and end up in the food chain.
Regulations
The first major steps in the fight against plastic bags in Europe were recorded in the early 2010s. Italy became the first EU member state to ban lightweight plastic bags in 2011. France followed in 2016 by banning free single-use plastic bags, while many other countries, including Serbia (since 2020), introduced charges. In Ireland, the introduction of a 15-cent tax back in 2002 reduced plastic bag use by more than 90 percent.
According to the 2015 EU directive, all member states were required to reduce the consumption of lightweight bags to below 90 per person annually by 2019, and below 40 by 2025. The introduction of bans, taxes, and education campaigns led to a measurable decline in use—with more and more consumers switching to cloth totes and reusable bags, which have also become a stylish expression of sustainable living.
The Sachet Economy
While public attention is often focused on grocery bags, small plastic sachets as a form of packaging have become a quiet but destructive part of the problem. In many lower-income countries, they are a daily reality. They are used to package daily doses of shampoo, coffee, detergent, and snacks, and target consumers who cannot afford larger quantities. However, behind this “affordability” lies a deep injustice, as highlighted in more detail by Break Free from Plastic.
For example, in the Philippines, sachets make up as much as 52 percent of residual plastic waste, while local waste management systems cannot cope with such amounts of non-recyclable plastic. Traditional habits such as buying small quantities in reusable glass bottles—known as “tingi”—have been displaced by marketing from multinational corporations.
Globally, more than 855 billion sachets are discarded annually, and they are most often used in poorer communities—not by choice, but because alternatives are not accessible. Sachets are made of multilayered materials and are virtually impossible to recycle. Local solutions—landfilling, incineration, or using them as fuel in cement factories—release dioxins and toxic substances that cause health problems.
Informal waste pickers, who recycle up to 60 percent of plastic waste, work in hazardous conditions without protection, while local governments—especially in poorer countries—spend up to 20 percent of their budgets on waste management, according to World Bank data.
Both bags and sachets symbolize a culture of consumption. Sustainable solutions do not lie in “bioplastics” or “plastic neutrality,” but in reuse, refilling, and eliminating unnecessary packaging.
On International Plastic Bag Free Day—and every day—it is important to recognize:
the point is not to make sachets better, but to make them unnecessary.
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