Plastic Bans Plastic Battle Politics & Legislation

Macron Bans More Plastics and Sooner Than The EU SUP Directive

The French Plastics and Composites Federation Reacts on the French SUP Legislative Proposal.

Context

The EU parliament voted on a SUP (Single-Use Plastics) directive. EU directives have to be transposed into national laws by the member states.

The French government organised a public consultation to enable stakeholders to share their comments, concerns, ideas and suggestions.

The French Federation of Plastics and Composites (La Fédération de la Plasturgie et des Composites) reacts on this consultation as follow. 

Reaction from the Federation

The French Federation welcomes the initiative but says the French legislative proposal goes beyond the EU directive

  • The EU Directive imposed a reduction on the consumption of plastic cups (partially or 100% made from plastics) including their lids by July 3, 2021. The French proposal prohibits all plastic cups and lids by Jan 1st 2020.
  • The EU Directive imposed a reduction on the consumption of plastic containers (partially or 100% made from plastics). The French proposal prohibits 100% plastic containers by 3 July 2021.

This is in contradiction with the Prime Minister’s circular letter of 26 July 2017 where he explained that special attention should be given in the transposition of European directives.

This law will undermine the competitiveness of French companies.

Most on-the-go packaging are made from PET. 100% PET containers are recyclable and will be substituted by packaging that contain other materials than PET such as cardboard, pulp, wood …. making it non-recyclable. This is in contradiction with the circular economy.

This law will create legal and industrial uncertainty with financial and employment consequences.

French Prime Minister gave a speech on June 12 where he said….we will ban food containers that are not made from recycled plastics. The French PM is not consistent.

The deadline is too short and there won’t be enough time for practical modalities.

This will create a stock of unsold plastics who will become illegal to some extend.

The Federation asks for a delay of 6 month to be able to sell the plastic stocks.

REFS & SIMILAR

PERSONAL REMARKS

  • It’s unfortunate that these consultations are not done in English. We’re supposed to be Europeans but we speak 27 different languages.
  • President Macron made the promises to recycle all plastics by 2025. However, in the meantime, the recycling industry collapsed: Asian countries don’t want to import plastic waste anymore; and we’ve discovered that very few plastic was actually recycled.
  • Macron needs to win on this topic, because he’s not doing well in terms of internal policies.
  • The French Plastics Industry may become the sacrificial lambs on the altar of re-election.

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