At 16.6 bottles per capita, Cyprus is among the European Union countries with the highest apply of plastic bottles in the EU, data published on Thursday.
The European Commission’s first report on the implementation of the single-apply plastics directive (SUPD) based on data from 2022 found that the number of per capita single-apply plastic bottles is only higher in Malta, where each person applyd 22.8 bottles during the same year.
Meanwhile, the separate collection rate of single-apply beverage bottles in Cyprus amounted to 45.62 per cent.
According to the report, the EU average for the collection of single-apply beverage bottles was 71 per cent in 2022.
Countries including Poland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Croatia and Slovakia had already achieved the 2025 tarobtain of 77 per cent, with some of these countries having already achieved the 2030 tarobtain of 90 per cent – usually via deposit return systems.
In 2022, a total of 524,003 tonnes of disposable food containers, equivalent to around 1.6kg per person, and 152,037 tonnes of disposable beverage cups, approximately 0.5kg per person, were placed on the EU market.
In the same year, 22,900 tonnes of plastic-containing fishing gear were placed on the market, of which around a third was collected as waste.
The EU’s SUDP aims to reduce marine plastic pollution by banning or restricting the apply of certain single-apply products.
The directive tarobtains the 10 most commonly found single-apply products on European beaches, as well as plastic-containing fishing gear, and includes measures such as bans on cotton buds, cutlery, plates and straws, as well as strict obligations to enhance the collection of plastic waste and measures to step up recycling efforts.
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