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Cyprus records one of the highest per-person levels of single-use plastic beverage bottles in the European Union, according to the European Commission’s first assessment of the Single-Use Plastics Directive.
Figures from 2022 place Cyprus in second position across the EU, with 16.6 single-use plastic bottles per person entering the market and being collected separately. Malta leads the ranking with 22.8 per person. In Cyprus, the share of these bottles collected through separate systems reached 45.62 percent that year.
Across the EU, the average collection rate for single-use plastic beverage bottles stood at 71 percent in 2022. Several countries have already exceeded upcoming targets set under the directive. Estonia, Poland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Belgium have reached the 2025 goal of 77 percent collection. Estonia, Poland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have also met the 2030 objective of 90 percent. Systems that return deposits for bottles are commonly linked with stronger performance.
The report also provides a snapshot of other single-use plastic products. In 2022, EU countries placed 524,003 tonnes of disposable food containers on the market, equal to roughly 1.6 kilograms per person. Disposable beverage cups reached 152,037 tonnes, or about 0.5 kilograms per person.
Plastic-containing fishing equipment accounted for 22,900 tonnes placed on the market that year. About one-third of this amount was later collected as waste.
