Ireland. Ireland was one of the first countries that tried to deal with the overuse of plastic bags. In 2002 the Irish government introduced a plastic bag tax. It was the first law that had an impact on the consumers, because they were the ones paying 20ȼ per bag. This reduced the use of plastic bags big time. Within 5 months the use of plastic bags had decreased with 90%.

France. In France they have banned the use of plastic bags from all the supermarkets. The law doesn’t enter until 2016, but at the moment the French supermarkets already stopped providing free plastic bags to shoppers. People are asked to bring there own bags.

Supermarket giant Carrefour, one of the biggest supermarket chains in France, has stopped providing free plastic bags to their customers in 2003. An estimated 21 billion plastic bags have not been used thanks to this initiative.

Netherlands. In the Netherlands there are a lot of problems with plastic. Especially plastic waste that ends up in the sea. Around 44% of the plastic waste from the beaches, will end up in the sea. With this comes a lot of risks.

The Dutch government tries to reduce the use of plastic by telling shop owners  not to hand out any more plastic bags. They have also set up campaigns to show the public how to keep the Netherlands clean.

With the Nederland Schoon  campaign, the government tries to encourage the public to keep the Netherlands clean and without any waste on the ground.