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3:24
France: Law against the use of plastic containers for fruits and vegetables is passed
As of Saturday, the sale in plastic containers of carrots, potatoes, leeks, tomatoes, pears, and other 30 items is prohibited.
2021 in France started with good news. The entry into force of the law that prevents companies from using plastic to pack vegetable and fruit foods, weighing less than 1.5 kilos, is public.
Additionally, vehicle companies should promote walking and cycling versus driving in their advertisements. This in order to reduce pollution and the emissions of substances that damage the ozone layer.
This is a result of one more stage, of the fight against pollution. In France, on January 1, a law banning plastic packaging came into force for food grown on land weighing less than 1.5 kg. Magazines should also be packaged in non-plastic wrappers.
Organizations must adapt this change in their wrapping and packaging. Some options are: cellulose nets, cardboard or paper bags. France foresees that this new regulation will eliminate around 1 billion plastic waste annually.
As for the transport sector in France, this is responsible for approximately 31% of the emissions of substances that affect the ozone layer. The data also shows that private vehicles create twice as many.
French telephone administrators and Internet providers will also have to ask their customers for an indicator of the emissions of greenhouse gases, created by their action online and by the use of their mobile devices.
The law consists of 166 articles. It was enacted on February 10, 2020 in France. This was signed and approved by Bárbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition; Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Finance and Economy, and Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture.
Great controversy
The law has aroused various sentiments, regardless of whether it addresses a stage of progress for the nation and the European continent, in environmental terms.
The person in charge of the Interfel association of the fruit and vegetable area, Laurent Grandin, is sorry that the specialists have not thought about the small entrepreneurs who will not be able to take care of the high costs of plastic substitutes. He assured the AFP agency that they were never consulted.
The head of modern business sectors at packaging organization DS Smith, Armand Chaigne, was delighted with the move and welcomed it with great optimism, particularly about what this law could mean for carton producers.
"It is estimated that in Europe, of the eight million tonnes of plastic produced per year for single-use packaging, 1.5 million tonnes could already be withdrawn," he told AFP.
Ensuring that it would be around 70,000 million units of plastic packaging of a single utility, or approximately 7,000 million euros of probable sum for cardboard.
The boss has given companies a period of half a year to review the supplies of plastic packaging and exhaust them. Equally, full regulation will not be in place until 2026, to give organizations more opportunity to adapt.
An image of waste in France
Under one of the laws, manufacturers cannot discard certain items of clothing, cleaning, and furnishings that have not been sold.
In France around 4,000 million euros of products (excluding food) remain unsold. 15% of these new products, estimated at more than 600 million euros, are burned or deposited in landfills.
180 million euros, of which 49 million euros correspond to the area of beauty and hygiene ; 10 million to textiles and footwear ; 10 million euros to household appliances ; and 40 million euros to toys.
