Will imposing a tax on plastic help to reduce its consumption, and ultimately – hopefully – solve much of the world’s problem with plastics waste? That’s a possibility that the Finnish government wants to study in the country’s Reduce and Refuse, Recycle and Replace plastics roadmap.

Its Environment Ministry’s Moisture and Mould Programme director Merja Saarnilehto says Denmark (like Finland, a Nordic country) already has a tax on single-use plastics. People in Denmark – which reportedly is the first country to introduce a tax on plastic bags, in 1993 – use an average of just four single-use plastic bags in a year.