Only 28% recycled plastic
The Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili recognizes that plastic is one of the least recycled materials. According to her, a “a change of scale “must take place.” The investments that we put in place, plus the EPR sectors must enable us to achieve the objective that we have set for ourselves“, she assures. By 2025, France has indeed committed to”strive for 100% recycling of plastic packaging“.”Before recycling plastic, what is needed is first to reduce single-use plastic“, she believes. To do this, the minister considers it necessary to invest.”It is hundreds of millions of euros that the State is putting on the table through various tools, the recovery plan, the investment plans for the future to help manufacturers change their processes and ensure that ” they can use plastic while thinking of recycling after“, she specifies.
Disposable plastics prohibited
Several single-use plastic products have been banned since January 2021, such as plastic cups, straws and styrofoam boxes. However, it still happens to be found in our shops. Despite everything, Barbara Pompili believes that a real job has been done: “In no store do I see plastic straws. “According to the coalition of NGOs Rethink Plastic, France is one of the five good European students in the fight against disposable plastic. But it notes that the law”could suffer from a lack of application, in particular with regard to controls and sanctions“.
End of packaging in 2040
Promulgated in 2020, the anti-waste law for a circular economy provides for the “exit of single-use plastic packaging by 2040. “”Plastic packaging, when you see what it represents, it’s absolutely huge (…) There are other packaging that are more complicated to change, and these packaging, you sometimes have to take a little time“, explains Barbara Pompili. The minister announces to have planned, for January, a decree, which will ban plastic packaging on fruits and vegetables.”We are on a billion packaging per year that will be deleted, but this does not yet concern all fruit and vegetable packaging“, she admits. For example, packaging alternatives for fruits such as raspberries are more complicated to set up, which is why a margin of time is given to these manufacturers.
An intermediate target aims for a 20% reduction by the end of 2025. In 2020, a year of health crisis, the quantity of plastic packaging increased by 2%.