“Faced with marine pollution, we must change our habits. This is what we are going to do. On 1 January, we will become one of the first countries to stop using plastic packaging for transporting fruit and vegetables.” With this announcement, made by Emmanuel Macron on 3 September 2021 via his official Twitter account, the French president puts his country at the forefront of a demand strongly championed by the environmental movement.
The French law on anti-waste and a circular economy was published on 11 February 2020 in the French Official Journal, ending a long process of debate and consultation that had begun in October 2017.
It is certainly good news for France to stop using plastic containers for the transport of goods. Plastics and their derivatives are responsible for much of the pollution of both sweet and salty water. The image of huge “floating islands” of plastics in the oceans or plastic waste in the stomachs of all kinds of marine animals is something that needs to be finished as quickly as possible and governments are responsible for this.
According to the French Minister of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Elizabeth Borne, the law is an ambitious text that aims to transform society from producing-consuming-throwing into circular logic. The text includes more than a hundred measures affecting the daily actions of French citizens, one of its main objectives being to end the use of single-use plastic by 2040.
The ban which has revolutionized the French fruit and vegetable sector will enter into force on 1 January 2022. From that date, all retailers selling unprocessed fruit and vegetables in France must do so without any kind of plastic packaging.
FX Sanmartí manufactures cartons for the transport of fruit and vegetables in large quantities and with immediate delivery.
This ban will affect not only French producers, but to all companies wishing to market fruit and vegetables in Franceand therefore to the Spanish. Spain exports to France fruit and vegetables worth more than €3 billion per year, as the Gaul country is the second destination of our exportsJust behind Germany.
Faced with this situation, the corrugated cardboard containers they are the cleanest and most sustainable alternative, at the same time as economical, to completely eliminate the use of plastic packaging. They are economical, adaptable to any need and, above all, totally recyclable.
