• Since July 3, the 27 EU member states have theoretically had to transpose into their national law a European directive banning eight single-use plastic products.

  • Some, including France, have done it seriously, others have been content with the minimum, and others have done nothing yet, notes Surfrider.

    And even among good students, it remains to be seen whether these new rules are respected in the field.

  • It is to answer this question that the NGO is launching, this Monday and until November 28, a major campaign of citizen mobilization across Europe. Clearly, Surfrider asks Europeans to open their eyes and report the abuses to him.

Cotton swabs, plates, cutlery, stirrers, straws, balloon stems… Or even food packaging in expanded polystyrene, such as “kebab boxes”, as well as all oxo-degradable plastics… Since 3 July, EU member states normally had to transpose into their national law the European Single-use Plastics (SUPS) directive, which bans the sale of eight single-use plastic products. They must be replaced in shelves or restaurants with alternatives made from more environmentally friendly materials, such as wood, cardboard or recyclable plastic.

The Twenty-Seven were not caught off guard.

“This SUP directive was adopted in March 2019, which gave EU countries two years to integrate it into their national law,” explains Diane Beaumenay-Joannet, plastic advocacy manager at Surfrider Europe.

Check in the field

In a report, published in early July, the NGO pointed to more or less ambitious transpositions from one state to another. “Five have done well: Greece, Sweden, Estonia, Ireland and France [where these bans were introduced on January 1], Diane Beaumenay-Joannet list. Others have contented themselves with applying the minimum required by the directive, without for example seeking, in parallel with bans, to seek to reduce the consumption of other plastic products or to extend the responsibility of plastic producers. And other countries, still, have simply not yet transposed this directive. "

But transposing European directives into national law is one thing. Enforcing them on the ground is another. Clearly, can we still find these famous single-use plastics now banned? It is to answer this question that Surfrider Europe, with the help of Break Free From Plastic, an international network of anti-plastic associations, are launching, this Monday, a citizen mobilization campaign across Europe. Including, and above all even, in the five countries that are a priori good students. Diane Beaumenay-Joannet keeps in mind the precedents of non-compliance with European directives on plastics. "Single-use plastic bags, for example, normally banned since 2016 in France, but that we continue to find regularly, especially on the markets," she illustrates.

Europeans invited to keep an eye out

This mobilization campaign will end on November 28, the last day of European Waste Reduction Week.

The principle is simple.

Europeans are invited to keep their eyes open when they go shopping and to spot single-use plastics still being distributed.

If this is the case, they are invited to take a picture of them and report them on the nosingleuse.org website, which these NGOs have just launched, indicating the type of product in question, the brand and the place where it was found.

It works for traditional merchants as well as for e-commerce.

In the second case, "users will be asked to take screenshots of the sites and indicate their URL".

A campaign that encourages denunciation?

“Not really, defends Diane Beaumenay-Joannet.

The data that will be sent to us will be on a private platform, only visible to us.

We will summarize the situation in Europe on the ban on single-use plastics.

In which sector is it well applied on the ground?

Where else does it get stuck?

And why ?

".

Surfrider Europe does not, however, refrain from targeting certain major brands which continue to market single-use plastics.

Even more if, at the same time, they praise eco-responsible approaches.

"Not to annoy traders, but because there is an emergency"

"We are simply asking that everyone comply with the law," continues Diane Beaumenay-Joannet.

This is not there to annoy merchants or brands, but because there is an urgent need to ban these single-use plastics, which are an environmental scourge.

"

At Surfrider Europe, we already know that certain single-use plastics, theoretically banned since July 3, have not completely disappeared from circulation.

From straws to kebab boxes.

"The excuse, often heard, of stocks to be sold does not hold, insists the responsible for plastics advocacy.

Just as much as the public authorities, traders and brands also had two years to anticipate this ban.

Often even more so for those who were involved in the discussions upstream of this directive.

"

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