Online fashion retailers to send 2.7 billion unnecessary plastic bags to Spanish consumers

A new study by DS Smith reveals that by 2030, 2.7 billion plastic bags will be used for online fashion deliveries in Spain, the equivalent of sending more than 50,000 plastic bags every hour.

Online fashion retailers sent 314 million unnecessary plastic bags to Spanish shoppers last year, equivalent to more than 800,000 bags every day. Successive measures to limit the use of plastic bags in stores, such as the obligation to charge for them or regulations on their composition, have very significantly reduced their presence in traditional commerce. However, the rise of online shopping has been accompanied by a steady increase in their use in e-commerce.

An analysis by Development Economics commissioned by sustainable packaging company DS Smith, an International Paper company, reveals that the use of “secondary” plastic bags (those used for delivery) will increase by 77% by 2030, in line with the expected growth in online fashion sales. This means that almost 560 million plastic bags will arrive on the doorstep of Spanish households every year: in total, 2.7 billion unnecessary bags by 2030.

Only 7% of ecommerce fashion bags delivered in Spain are reused or recycled, while the remaining 93% end up in landfills or incinerators, which amounted to 291 million bags last year alone. If the predicted growth in e-commerce and slow progress in increasing recycling rates continue, this figure will rise over the next few years: by 2030, an estimated 500 million plastic bags are expected to end up in landfill or being incinerated each year.

How can change be accelerated?

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