Good news coming from France - since Saturday, 1st of January 2022, in the framework of the AGEC law (law against waste generation and supporting circular economy), an important measure has been applied to reduce plastic: fruits and vegetables under 1.5 kg can no longer be sold in plastic packaging (professionals have a delay of 6 months to sell their stocks and find an alternative). This measure will impact about 30 fruits and vegetables and is going beyond European objectives. Currently, according to our French environment ministry, about 37% of fruit and vegetables are sold with plastic packaging.
What is more, to reach its national objective of recycling 100% of plastic packaging waste in 2025, the French government intends to reform the recycling of plastic packaging. First, it will grant more power of action to the two Producer Responsibility Organizations in charge of post-consumer waste packaging by being in charge of recycling and buying some plastic packaging waste streams. Then, local authorities will have to collect all plastic packing wastes by 2023 and adapt their sorting facilities by 2026 to produce standardized plastic waste streams more easily integrated be recyclers and industrials. Currently only half of them are in compliance with this objective which was supposed to be fully implemented by 2022. So the legislative proposition aims to catch up with this ambitious target.
More information about the new legislation can be found HERE.
