 "Plastic cup ban pushed to 2030 as France struggles to find substitutes")
The French government delayed the ban on plastic throwaway cups on Tuesday by almost four years to 2030. France is facing difficulty in finding other alternatives and choosing plastic as the most appropriate option.
The ban was meant to start on January 1, but the ministry for ecological transition stated that the technical feasibility of eliminating plastic from cups following a review this year justified pushing back the deadline.
In an official statement, the ministry said that a new review would be carried out in 2028 of “progress made in replacing single-use plastic cups”. It added that the ban would now start January 1, 2030, when companies would have 12 months to get rid of their stock.
France had rolled out bans on single-use plastic products in earlier decades as environmental campaigners have stepped up warnings about the impact on rivers and oceans.
A 2020 law set a deadline of 2040 to eliminate all single-use plastics. A ban on plastic bags for loads of less than 1.5 kilogrammes (3.3 pounds) of 30 fruit and vegetables was introduced in 2022 and has dramatically changed supermarket habits.
But the government’s DGCCRF consumer protection agency said in a report released last year that almost a fifth of about 100 companies it checked in 2023 were breaching regulations on the production or use of single-use plastic items.
Its investigators said some marketed plastic-free products that in reality contained plastic, and some changed the name of the item in a bid to get around the ban.
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