Single-Use Plastic Bag Usage Rises Over 10% in Israel Since 2022 Despite Environmental Efforts

Official data from Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection reveals a more than 10% increase in the use of single-use plastic bags since 2022. In 2025, approximately 524 million disposable plastic bags were sold to consumers, up from 474 million in 2022, before Environment Minister Idit Silman took office. The figures for 2023 and 2024 were 479 million and 525 million bags respectively, showing a steady rise after a slight dip in 2022.

Although the current usage is significantly lower than the 1.7 billion bags sold in 2016 before the plastic bag reduction law was enacted, the trend since 2017 has been an upward climb. The lowest sales were in 2017, with 378 million bags sold at 10 agorot each. Comparing 2025 to 2017, there has been a 38% increase in single-use plastic bag consumption.

The Ministry highlighted that the day of the report's release coincided with the International Day Without Single-Use Plastic Bags, aiming to raise awareness about the environmental damage caused by these bags. They emphasized that although plastic bags are used for only a few minutes, they take hundreds of years to decompose, polluting open spaces and water sources and harming wildlife.

Minister Silman did not comment on the increase in bag sales since her appointment but stressed the environmental harm caused by single-use plastic bags. She noted that the plastic bag law raised consumer awareness about the negative environmental impact of disposable products and called for a shift to reusable baskets and utensils to prevent waste generation at the source.

The Ministry also mentioned that due to the introduction of a new online reporting system, retailers were granted an extension to submit their 2025 data, so a comprehensive report on the law's implementation for that year has not yet been presented to the Knesset.