French legislation mandates use of biobased and home-compostable thin-walled plastic bags

“The decree sets out clear requirements for the reduction of single-use plastic bags in favor of biobased, biodegradable and home-compostable bags. This is an important measure and supports the efforts of EUBP to emphasise the essential role of bioplastics for the circular economy in Europe,” says Hasso von Pogrell, Managing Director of EUBP.
In September last year, the French government notified the European Commission and its 27 EU colleague nations of its draft decree (“décret”) restricting use of plastics carrier bags in France. The decree, as part of the new law on Energy Transition and Green Growth, was intended as the instrument to implement the obligations on plastics bags that had been adopted by the French Assemblée Nationale to implement the EU requirements, and stated:

“The decree defines the conditions for the application of the legislative provisions of the Environmental Code, aiming to ban the marketing of disposable plastic bags, with the exception, for bags other than carrier bags, of compostable bags that can be disposed of with household composting waste and which entirely or partially consist of bio-sourced materials.”

On 21 December 2015, the European Commission formally issued a detailed letter to the French government objecting to parts of its draft decree to restrict the use of single use plastics carrier bags. As of 1 February, however, an implementation decree setting out the requirements and conditions in greater detail has been approved and will come into effect on 1 July 2016. The decree applies to single-use carrier bags below a thickness of 50 microns, which will have to meet the requirements of the French standard for home composting and feature a biobased content of at least 30 percent. The minimum biobased content will increase progressively to 40 percent in 2018, 50 percent in 2020, and 60 percent in 2025. Appropriate bioplastics materials have been readily available on the market for quite some time, and manufacturers are eagerly waiting in the wings.

Christophe Doukhi-de Boissoudy, president of French association Club Bio-plastiques comments: "We welcome the mobilisation of public authorities in order to finally achieve such a measure. It will allow biobased and biodegradable plastics stakeholders to harness the benefits of their research efforts to develop new biodegradable and compostable plastics that reduce our dependency on oil. The decree will help to reduce the plastic bags pollution as well as to revive economic activity for French plastics converters, as 90 percent of fruit and vegetable bags are currently being imported.”

The law makes France one of the first European countries to take concrete measures on plastic bags in favor of biobased and compostable bags in an effort to comply with the European Directive to reduce the consumption of lightweight plastic bags. It also underpins the benefits of separate collection of organic waste with biodegradable and compostable bags. The draft decree was amended to take the notions of the European Commission and the French State Council into account.

“We expect the French decree to serve as an example for European legislation and to contribute to the increased demand of sustainable bioplastic solutions,” von Pogrell concluded.(KL)

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