Are plastic bags finally on the way out in Germany?

Amid the global backlash against plastic waste, how are things looking in Europe's biggest economy? When it comes to plastic shopping bags at least, Germany is making steady progress. In 2018, each German used an average of 24 plastic shopping bags, equating to some 2 billion in total nationwide. That is still a huge decrease compared to the turn of the century when each person used 85 plastic bags on average. In 2000, total collective plastic bag consumption in Germany amounted to 7 billion items, according to the Umweltbundesamt and Handelsvertretern.