Packaging / Advertising & Office

According to industry trade organizations, the French government plans to ban the use of plastic packaging for many perishable goods. This not only leaves enough time for the emergence of non-alternative solutions, but it may also prompt retailers to switch to alternatives with higher carbon footprints. .

The French government announced last week that starting from 2022, most fruit and vegetable sales markets will ban the use of plastic packaging. According to the French Ministry of Agriculture, this initiative will enable the country to eliminate 1 billion pieces of plastic packaging each year. It is estimated that about 37% of fruit and vegetable products in France are sold in plastic packaging.

Virginia Janssens, managing director of PlasticsEurope, said that the bill was announced more than two months before the planned implementation period, and that the speed of legislation may push people to use alternatives with higher carbon footprints.

She said: "PlasticsEurope strongly opposes measures to replace materials with a high environmental footprint, not based on any life cycle analysis, and also does not consider increasing the risk of food waste and related environmental impact."

She added: “We support the transition of plastics to a circular economy, including carefully planned measures to reduce excessive packaging. Unreasonable bans only threaten this transition and cause negative environmental and socio-economic impacts.”

Participants in the polymer industry have long claimed that hasty legislation banning single-use plastics and the use of alternatives such as glass will lead to a substantial increase in carbon emissions.

The new French government is expected to gradually introduce new legislation to provide retailers with six months to deal with existing plastic packaging stocks and extend the timetable to 2026 to deal with fruits and fruits that are at risk of significant deterioration when sold in bulk. vegetable.

Christian Thery, chairman of the French plastics association Elipso, said that before the introduction of the new bill, no agency was commissioned to conduct post-impact studies, and that this move would bring changes before alternative resources were fully developed.

"Considering the currently available solutions and the functions of plastic packaging, the announced timetable is equivalent to making a bet on a sufficient number of hypothetical alternative packaging solutions." He said.

This move may also affect the transition to a circular economy by banning recyclable plastics.

"Manufacturers are investing in the development of recycling of plastic packaging as part of a virtuous circular economy. I hope that the new policy will not turn these efforts into nothing." He added.