The French parliament on Thursday passed a law forbidding retailers from destroying unsold clothes and banning single-use plastic containers by 2040, part of the government's efforts to reduce waste.
The bill adopted by the Senate, after being cleared by the lower house National Assembly last week, bans fast-food restaurants from serving food that is not for takeaway in plastic containers beyond 2023.The bill also creates a"repairability index" for electronic goods, allowing prospective customers to see at a glance how easy a device would be to fix and how to get spare parts.
President Emmanuel Macron's party, which is trying to boost its green credentials, has presented the law as a giant leap forward in the battle against the"produce, consume and discard" economic model.-- Supermarkets and online retailers are banned from destroying unsold merchandise, including clothes and hygiene products, from 2022.
-- Municipalities and recycling companies have until 2023 to reach targets for plastic bottle recycling, failing which they will be required to implement a German-style plastic bottle deposit-return scheme. The government, which is running far behind on EU plastic recycling targets, had wanted to introduce the scheme by 2022 but was forced by the Senate, which is controlled by the right-wing opposition, to delay its implementation by a year.