ATHENS — A report by the Research Institute of Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA) has shown a 98.6 drop in the use of thin plastic bags in supermarkets in 2019, in comparison with 2017.

Specifically, approximately 24 million of plastic bags were distributed in 2019, against 1.8 billion in 2017. The implementation of measures to discourage use of plastic bags in supermarkets was strict and universal, with per capita annual consumption of plastic bags via supermarkets dropping from 167 to two.

In other retail sectors and catering, the Institute recorded mixed trends as the increase of the environment tax from 0.03 to 0.07 plus VAT brought about a decline in bag use but lack of state monitoring led to rising tendencies.