Is France ahead of the other countries of the European Union?

EU member states on Monday endorsed a major text of the “Green Deal” requiring the recycling of all packaging within six years.

They pile up in our trash and we sometimes wonder where to put them: the packaging will all have to be recyclable within six years, according to the European Union. Member States and the European Parliament endorsed, on Monday March 4, a major text of the “Green Deal” which goes in this direction. Single-use plastics can no longer be used in restaurants. Europeans have never consumed so much packaging: almost 190 kilos per person, 32 kilos more in ten years.

In France, the recycling rate for household packaging is 65.5% according to Citéo, a company charged by the State with reducing the impact of packaging on the environment. This is within the European average but if we look in detail: barely a quarter of plastic waste is recycled and Europe wants that by 2035, all packaging will be systematically recycled. France therefore has ten years to find how to recycle the remaining 75% of plastic waste.

Plastic bottles and metal cans

Furthermore, to achieve this objective of all recyclable waste in Europe, the different materials will have to be collected separately. Today, when you look at the sorting instructions, you are often encouraged to put plastic, cardboard and aluminum packaging in the same sorting bin at the same time.

Europe, which wants to make deposit systems compulsory for plastic bottles and metal cans by 2029. But there will be exceptions for countries where at least 80% of plastic bottles and cans are already collected. In France, according to Ademe, the ecological transition agency, the collection rate for recycling of plastic bottles is a little over 60% today. The French law on the fight against waste sets a collection rate of 90% in 2029. Enough to be exempted by Europe, therefore.

Shampoo bottles and sauce pods

But even before improving recycling, it is about producing less. And there Europe turns to cafes and restaurants. Single-use plastic containers will therefore be banned by 2030 for food and drinks consumed on site. Paper containers will remain authorized.

France, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition, boasts of being the first European country to have banned disposable tableware in on-site catering. Since last year, establishments with more than 20 seats can no longer normally provide disposable tableware for meals on site. We obviously think of fast food restaurants.

Still on the subject of single-use packaging, Europe wants to eliminate plastic around fruits and vegetables, small shampoo bottles in the hotel industry as well as sauce pods within six years as well.