• Since January 1, fast food restaurants with more than 20 covers must serve meals taken on the spot in washable and reusable dishes.

  • For independent catering brands, changing all their dishes and habits will take a little more time, as

    20 Minutes

    found in Nantes and Rennes.

On the counter, a few colorful straws and plastic picnic forks protrude from a box.

"We have to sell our stock, but these are the last, I promise", apologizes with a burst of laughter Oualid, at the checkout of L'As Tacos in Nantes.

Like all fast food restaurants with more than 20 seats in France, this fast food brand knows that it must quickly get in the way.

Since January 1, in fact, the end of disposable cutlery: the law requires that meals taken on site must be served in washable and reusable dishes.

If the big signs, like Mc Donald's, play the good students, the organization turns out to be a little more complicated for the smaller structures.

At King Kebab, in downtown Rennes, "we don't have much choice anyway," smiles Firat, the site manager.

And it's been several months since the restaurant said goodbye to polystyrene kebab boxes and disposable plastic glasses in the dining room to replace them with real containers.

Rather than a sheet on a tray, he is now looking for the most stylish solution to arrange the sandwich, the fries and the sauces on one and the same plate.

"We tried in round plates but we don't like it," explains Firat.

We are no longer going to go on plates in the shape of a kayak but we have not yet found the right model.

It will be more classy even if it will be a bit expensive at first to buy all the dishes.

Some customers may find it weird too, but they will eventually adapt”.



“A new dishwasher” to buy

At the 7 bis sandwich shop, located on a busy shopping street in Nantes, Claudine has her work cut out for her.

Assuring that she only heard about the measure "very recently", the manager continues at the beginning of January to distribute cups, cardboard plates and small wooden forks, "very practical for customers who come just for a pastry ".

“There, it will be more complicated.

I'm going to have to buy a new dishwasher because it's going to run a lot more than it does now,” calculates Claudine, who sees several hundred customers passing by every day.

So the manager is “waiting for the sales” to equip herself with stainless steel plates, glasses and cutlery, which she thinks she has to renew regularly.

“I had already tried to offer solid plates, in all colors, but they disappeared little by little,

the manager is sorry.

So I gave up!

To prevent utensils from ending up in the trash, customers of this sandwich shop will no longer have to clear their trays themselves.


If the government has said it is ready to support independents who encounter financial difficulties, changing its dishes and its habits may still take some time.

In this Rennes burger brand, we still use cardboard boxes without knowing that it is now prohibited.

The manager also did not find a solution for the sauces, always served in small plastic pots.

“We will give ourselves time to find how to do it, he assures us however.

Anyway, we haven't been told anything yet!

Controls could be carried out quickly, with indulgence towards small structures.

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