Emmanuel Macron wants France to catch up on plastic recycling, as the country currently has to pay substantial taxes for any used packaging that ends up as waste, often to be buried or incinerated.
“Explain to people that we can afford to pay €1.5 billion to the EU every year because we are not meeting the commitments we have set ourselves,” president Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday at a circular economy event in Paris.
In place since 2021, the levy is an ‘own resource’ measure that feeds into the EU budget, where member countries have to pay €0.80 for every kilogramme of plastic packaging sold nationwide that is not collected for recycling.
Macron asked his government to step up efforts through “concrete measures that will enable us to meet the 2030 recycling target”. By that date, 55% of plastic packaging must be recycled.
France is considering two main strategies: improving collection in order to recycle an additional 225,000 tonnes a year – and boosting reuse.
Less is more
Deputy environment minister Mathieu Lefèvre told reporters after an environmental planning meeting that the first step was to “reduce our reliance on plastic at source with less unnecessary packaging, more bulk buying, more alternatives, and a massive acceleration in eco-design”.
With a 2029 deadline under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation for countries to ensure the collection of 90% of used drinks bottles, Lefèvre noted that those that had already met the target had implemented deposit-return schemes.
The French government is set to launch a consultation process involving MPs, industry representatives and local authorities. The latter, having made substantial investments in sorting centres, fear they will lose out financially if retailers and manufacturers roll out their own such schemes.
The country is launching an annual ‘Reuse Conference’ in the autumn, and plans to develop common standards, shared infrastructure and coherent logistics networks.
Some industries are concerned about mandates for solutions such as refillable packaging, and requested the postponement of the PPWR’s entry into force, highlighting key barriers such as high investment costs and a lack of harmonisation among EU countries.
(rh)
