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France to ban plastic packaging for most fruit and vegetables from January 2022:
France will ban plastic packaging for nearly all fruit and vegetables from January 2022 in a bid to reduce plastic waste, the environment ministry said on Monday.
Implementing a February 2020 law, the government published a list of about 30 fruits and vegetables that will have to be sold without plastic packaging from Jan. 1. The list includes leeks, aubergines and round tomatoes as well as apples, bananas and oranges.
"We use an outrageous amount of single-use plastic in our daily lives. The circular economy law aims at cutting back the use of throwaway plastic and boost its substitution by other materials or reusable and recyclable packaging," the ministry said in a statement.
It estimated that 37% of fruit and vegetables are sold with packaging and expects that the measure will prevent more than one billion useless plastic packaging items per year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @09:03AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday October 16 2021, @10:51AM (2 children)
Live a little!
(Score: 0) by Mockingbird on Sunday October 17 2021, @07:44AM (1 child)
I, for one, did not come here to be subjected to janrinok's tomato pron! A bit of a warning, si vous plait!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday October 17 2021, @11:20AM
Then perhaps you ought not to click on links which are obviously images. Most people here can recognise such things and make their own minds up - they do not need warnings.
Παρακαλώ
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday October 17 2021, @11:16AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 16 2021, @09:32AM (10 children)
I'd like to see the end of plastics in my kitchen. Most of them are infuriating anyway. The label says "easy open, easy reseal". Damn if I can figure half of them out. "Tear here", and the package rips wide open. "Lift here" and I can't find anything to get a fingernail under. I'd rather have a paper bag or something, they're easy to open, and just as easy to fold the paper back down to "seal" it. If someone thinks paper bags are unsightly, they can always put their food into see-through glass bowls, and stack them neatly in the fridge. OK, so most of those bowls have plastic lids, but they aren't single-use-toss-it-in-the-landfill lids.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @10:54AM (2 children)
Friends in western MA have gone "disposable plastic free". When I visit (used to be yearly, pre-virus) I have to pack out any plastic packaging I brought with me (house gifts, etc). It may be a little more work on their end, but their kitchen works fine without plastics.
One house gift they enjoy is some special cheese from my nearby cheese factory...and conveniently the factory store will wrap cheese in nice white paper.
While not plastic free (we don't have the nice farmer's markets that they have in western MA), I save and reuse, or recycle plastic bags. At least one of our stores collects plastic bag recycling...perhaps they are turned into Trex or other plastic building material?
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday October 16 2021, @11:22AM (1 child)
Or dumped in a landfill, apparently a common problem with such programs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @05:36PM
Incinerating for energy isn't the worst option either - Sweden and some other countries do that.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday October 16 2021, @01:30PM
I love when there are serrated edges on something, except it tears ANYWHERE but along the serration.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @03:40PM (1 child)
This will no doubt cause increase food waste. But at least those are compostable, eh? Who cares about the water/energy used to produce those food in the first place.
(Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 16 2021, @04:52PM
Which means you have to buy more, that's good for the farmers that are already dumping their crops to keep prices up. Our corrupt economic system is the real problem.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday October 16 2021, @04:54PM (1 child)
I salute the French for this. From an Old Journal [soylentnews.org], Useful dead tech part three:
Packaging that doesn’t need tools to open
Back in the last century things generally came in thin cardboard boxes, simple things that were always easy to open and seldom needed tools, and the only needed tools for some were a knife or scissors. Now? They package things in hard plastic that sometimes breaks scissors!
And it’s terrible for the environment. Over half of all plastic on Earth was manufactured in this century! There’s absolutely no rational or logical reason to imprison a product in a stupid, very hard to open plastic package. It seems that with some items, they gave more thought to the looks (but not usability) of the packaging than the actual merchandise!
Stop making all that damned plastic and stop making it so damned hard to access everything I’ve bought!
Now, easily opened packaging isn’t completely dead; they still use paper wrappers and cardboard boxes for fast food. But anything else? “Honey, have you seen the jackhammer?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @09:35PM
》 There’s absolutely no rational or logical reason to imprison a product
Yes there is... shoplifting by poor people. If you want to save the environment, imprison the poor so you won't have to imprison the products.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @05:26PM (1 child)
It's exceedingly difficult to get airtight containers that are easy to open and not plastic. This is a fact. My nice glass storage silos had some bugs get into them, and multiply (or they came from within and made it out), either way the outcome was not desirable. Without adequate storage solution you just end up buying small, which is not economical or environmentally friendly.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 16 2021, @05:34PM
Hmmmm. Virtually all produce is marketed by the bushel. I've never seen an airtight bushel. I really don't think it necessary to put produce into airtight containers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @11:30AM (1 child)
And not just for the plastic waste but for the estrogen mimicking Phthalates.
As a man, my growing tits will thank you.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @11:43AM
Try cutting back on the transvestite porn first.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @07:07PM (3 children)
I support their plastic packaging ban, and I hope it, and requiring water fountains spreads to other places too. But, I'll wait until I see a drinking fountain in a French airport before calling success on their effort.
If this makes it to the US (or at least to California), I hope those damn, impossible to remove, (usually plastic) stickers US grocers love to stick on anything they will stick to will be outlawed too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @07:56PM (2 children)
I am concerned the drinking fountain will be used as a pissoir.
Kinda like in some US cities, public transport is repurposed as a porta potty.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @09:41PM
Just stop issuing H1B visas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16 2021, @10:40PM
Damn. But, too true.
Ah, the smells of Paris. Cigarette smoke, urine and diesel exhaust.