At the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the eco-bag Madam the Minister Carole Dieschbourg, explained that Luxembourg with 18 plastic bags per habitant per year, is already well under the number desired by the EC. The reusable “eco-bags” has a lot to do with it.
Indeed, since its launch in Luxembourg in 2004 and the introduction of a priced one-way plastic bag in 2007, consumer habits have changed dramatically. Today, over 85% of customers use reusable bags for shopping. This avoided since 2004 the use of more than 560 million one-way shopping bags, representing a saving of 3,700 tons of plastic. The eco-bag project has reduced the total weight of one-way plastic bags of 89.8%. In September 2012, the EC designated the eco-bag project as an example of best practice in the field of waste prevention. The eco-bag is a part of an environmental agreement on packaging waste prevention and is based on a voluntary agreement between the Ministry, VALORLUX and the Luxembourg Trade Confederation (clc).