Majority of EU consultation respondents want single-use plastics rules to cover more products. More than half the respondents to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Single-Use Plastics Directive consider its product scope insufficient, with tobacco filters cited as the most commonly encountered litter item by 40 per cent of those who responded.

The consultation, which ran from December 2025 to March 2026, received 447 responses from citizens, businesses, NGOs and public authorities. A fifth of respondents specifically called for additional measures or bans on tobacco filters, the single most frequent demand in the open-text answers. Nearly two-thirds reported seeing banned single-use plastic items still available through online marketplaces and retail.

Nine in 10 respondents considered EU-level action on single-use plastics important or very important, and 75 per cent said member states could not address the issue better individually. The results will feed into the Commission’s formal evaluation of the Directive, due by July 2027.

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