Today, January 1, 2020, is a historic date in France. The country has banned plastic plates, plastic cups and cotton buds.
Not only plastic plates and glasses: plastic bottles have also been banned, but for now only by school catering services.
In short, the cancellation of disposable plastic in France is getting to the heart. The first country in the world to take this step.
A path that will last 20 years, but will end up eliminating all objects of this type.
Here is the road map of all the next cancellations that will gradually cross the Alps after that of plates and plastic cups.
2021
Disposable plastic straws and cutlery, stirrers and stirrers, disposable plastic cup lids, confetti, polystyrene containers, plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables weighing less than 1,5 kg.
2022
Disposable dishes in fast food restaurants for meals served on the spot (still nothing for those sent home, and I fear they will be an increasingly high share). Plastic toys for fast food. Plastic tea bags. Free plastic bottles in companies. Also in 2022, all public places will have to host mandatory fountains.
Dramatic situation
In the context of a planet already on the verge of suffocation from plastic, France even worsens the European average: in 2018 only a quarter of all disposable plastic packaging was recycled in the baguette country. And to say that the figures in our continent are not that much higher: some decimal places above 30%.
And in the world it is even worse
This fall, a survey conducted by the online magazine Quartz found that no more than 9% of the disposable plastic produced across our planet is recycled.
More plastic has been produced since 2004 than in all previous human history. Without a brake, plastic production is expected to triple again by 2050.
