Impact of the 2020 Plastic Bag Charge Policy on the Amount of Plastic Bags: Observed in Terms of the Material for Plastic Bags

Abstract

This study focuses on the types of petroleum-derived product materials, which are intermediate goods, to measure the impact of the plastic bag charge policy implemented in Japan in July 2020 on the amount of plastic bags produced. Using difference-in-differences, synthetic control, and synthetic difference-in-differences methods on material data from 2007 to 2023, the plastic bag charge policy appears to have resulted in a 1.097 kg reduction per person in the sales of high-density polyethylene. This is equivalent to a reduction of 13.88 billion plastic bags in Japan as a whole, empirically confirming the effectiveness of this plastic bag charge policy.