France bans single-use plastic bags in stores

Street art made from recycled plastic bags in Angers, France

Today, July 1, a ban on the provision of single-use bags in shops (supermarkets), pharmacies, bakeries, gas stations and markets (open and covered) comes into force in From now on, only reusable plastic bags with a thickness of more than 50 microns will be available to customers.

Six months later, an additional ban on packaging fruits and vegetables in the usual polyethylene will begin to operate: from January 1, 2017, products in French stores will only be allowed to be wrapped in the so-called "bioplastic" - a special plastic material with the addition of potato and corn starch, which guarantees the possibility of its composting at home. conditions (without the need for industrial processing).

France is not the first country in the European Union to implement such a ban. For example, Italy in 2012 abandoned single-use plastic bags for environmental and economic reasons, preferring "biodegradable" bags, and Ireland in 2002 introduced a special tax on single-use plastic bags in stores (15 cents), which in the first 5 months led to reducing their consumption in the country by 90%.

According to European Commission statistics for 2010, the average person in the European Union uses about 200 plastic bags a year, with the vast majority of them used only once. According to the directive of the European Parliament of April 29, 2015, EU members have already agreed to achieve two goals soon: