Plastic bottles: France proposes banning the smallest ones
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
A bill is being debated in France to ban plastic bottles smaller than 50 centilitres.
Plastic bottles: France proposes banning the smallest ones
A bill is being debated in France to ban plastic bottles smaller than 50 centilitres.
Plastic bottles, as is well known, represent an enormous problem from both an environmental and a climate standpoint. In the first case because, despite the efforts of recent decades, a great many are not recycled and are not even disposed of in general waste bins around the world. On the contrary, they are discarded everywhere, including in vulnerable areas and in seas across the globe. In doing so, they contaminate wildlife and even enter the food chain, ending up on our plates in the form of microplastics. For this reason, a French MP, Pierre Cazeneuve, has decided to table a bill to ban at least the "most absurd" part of the problem: namely, plastic bottles smaller than 50 centilitres.
17cl, 20cl, 25cl, 33cl : encore en 2024, des dizaines de millions de micro-formats de bouteilles plastiques sont produites en France chaque année, une véritable absurdité écologique.
👉 Je dépose ce matin une proposition de loi visant à les interdire !
👉 Je dépose ce matin une proposition de loi visant à les interdire !
French MP Cazeneuve: "It's absurd that 17-centilitre bottles exist"
Although when people think of water or other drinks sold in single-use packaging, they often picture six-packs of one-litre or half-litre bottles, ever smaller sizes have become increasingly widespread. 33 centilitres, but also 25 and even 17. "These are formats I consider totally absurd, and which make no sense from an environmental point of view, since they involve 20–25 grams of plastic for just three or four sips of water," the MP told broadcaster TF1.
Nous soutenons cette proposition de loi de @PierreCazeneuve. Pour rappel on met sur le marché 15 milliards de bouteilles en plastique en France chaque année et une grande partie est inutile ! tf1info.fr/environnement-…
As a result, the bill — which was tabled on 14 October — was warmly welcomed by environmental organisations, in particular No plastic in my sea, which in a post published on the social network X added: "We would remind you that every year 15 billion plastic bottles are placed on the market in France, the vast majority of which are unnecessary."
15 billion plastic bottles a year in France
For now, the industry has been cautious and has not reacted to Cazeneuve's proposal. The latter, in fact, focuses precisely on the most egregious part of the issue, and it is therefore not inconceivable that manufacturers of drinks in plastic bottles might consider refraining from opposing a regulation that would, in any case, effectively safeguard the bulk of their business.