First country to ban single-use plastic bags

On 1 January 2002, Bangladesh became the first country to legislate against the production and use of thin (20-micrometre thick or less) polythene bags, initially in the capital, Dhaka, and later rolled out to the whole country.

The groundwork for this ban had been building up since 1993 when the Ministry of Environment and Forest began a campaign, tapping into a public demand to see the removal of single-use plastic bags from society. A large driver behind this is that these bags were a major cause of blocking drains and waterways, exacerbating existing problems with flooding in the low-lying country.

Despite blazing a trail in terms of legislation, Bangladesh has struggled to enforce the ban. In 2020, Bangladesh's high court demanded the government to redouble its efforts and introduce meaningful steps to tackle the use of single-use plastics by 2021.