No more plastic films on fruits and vegetable trays.
From January 1, 2022, many unprocessed fresh fruits and vegetables can no longer be sold in plastic in France, with tolerances until 2026 for the most fragile such as red fruits, according to a government press release published on Monday, October 11.
As for vegetables, leeks, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, round tomatoes, onions, turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, squash, parsnips, radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, root vegetables must be on the shelves without plastic packaging.
For fruits, apples, pears, oranges, clementines, kiwis, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, plums, melons, pineapples, mangoes, passion fruit and persimmons are affected by the ban.
Over a billion packaging avoided
While 37% of fruits and vegetables are now sold in packaging, the measure targeting thirty of them "should make it possible to avoid more than a billion unnecessary plastic packaging each year", hopes the government.
The decree setting these rules, consulted by AFP, will be published on Tuesday.
The three signatory ministries (Economy, Ecological Transition, Agriculture and Food) note in their press release that the date of entry into force is set for January 1, 2022 "as provided for by the law on the fight against waste and the economy circular of February 2020, known as the AGEC law ".
For fruits and vegetables "presenting a significant risk of deterioration of their sale in bulk", the decree grants until June 30, 2026 to find alternative solutions.
Thus certain varieties of tomatoes (rib, long, cherry or cocktail), early onions and turnips, Brussels sprouts, green beans, grapes, peaches, nectarines and apricots will have a right to plastic until June 30, 2023.
As for vegetables, endives, asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, potatoes and early carrots, salad, lamb's lettuce, young shoots, aromatic herbs, spinach, sorrel, edible flowers, and mung bean sprouts can remain in plastic until December 31, 2024 As well as cherries, cranberries, cranberries and physalis.
Stock flow
The longest exemptions are given to fully ripe fruits, sprouted seeds, and red fruits which have until June 30, 2026 to get rid of plastic.
A period of six months is also granted for "disposal of packaging stocks".
Food plastic packaging is the primary user of the plastic produced in the world.
In France, 45.5% of the consumption of plastics is used to manufacture packaging, according to the Heinrich Boll foundation.
Monday evening, while affirming that the sector of fresh fruits and vegetables represents "less than 1.5% of plastic packaging in the food sector" in France, the inter-profession of fruits and vegetables Interfel wondered "why" this sector is "targeted as a priority".
"In the Covid context, the lack of availability of raw materials and the cost of alternative solutions" make it "particularly difficult to implement" the measure "on January 1, 2022", adds the inter-branch, which says it regrets that "the The use of 100% recyclable plastic for packaging "proposed by the sector" was not retained ".
"We hope that this Franco-French measure, and exclusively sectoral, will not penalize the place of French products within the European space", concludes Interfel.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR