In Sweden, we like our plastic bags. In 2025, the use of plastic carrier bags used to carry food home increased by just over 20 percent compared with previous years, according to new statistics from the Swedish National Food Agency. And very thin bags, such as so-called fruit bags, increased by a whopping 65 percent.
It is primarily the thin fruit and vegetable bags that are increasing. But overall we are using more plastic bags, says Fredrik Khayati, waste statistics officer at the Swedish National Food Administration.
23 per person
The large increase is apparently linked to the decision in autumn 2024, when the tax on plastic bags was removed.
You can assume that, says Fredrik Khayati.
Even though the use of plastic bags in Sweden has increased over the past year, we are still on the right side of the EU target. In Sweden, we use an average of 23 plastic bags per person per year - the EU's target is a maximum of 40 bags per person.
"I would say that we have reached a plateau now. It has increased and now it will probably stay at this level," says Fredrik Khayati.
400 million bags
In total, there were around 400 million plastic bags for sale in Sweden in 2025. Of these, almost 250 million were plastic carrier bags used to carry food from the store. In 2025, there were also 10 million thick plastic bags for sale, compared with just over 7 million the year before.
The plastic bag tax was introduced in spring 2020, with the aim of reducing litter in nature. The tax effect, with a surcharge of three kronor for carrier bags, came fairly immediately. By the end of 2020, consumers had purchased 55 carrier bags per person, compared with 74 bags the year before.
