A list considered “illegal”. As of January 1, 2022, fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables can no longer be sold in plastic packaging. However, as part of the anti-waste law, the government had exempted some from this ban on the grounds that they presented a risk of spoilage if sold in bulk.
“The list (of exempt fruit and vegetables) prepared by the Government has been challenged by several associations before the Council of State, which now considers it illegal,” however, the highest administrative court announced on Friday. And add that “the government has included in its list fruits and vegetables that do not necessarily present a risk of deterioration.”
The application decree was published in October 2021 and, in particular, establishes tolerances for plastic packaging until 2026 for the most fragile, such as red fruits. It is this progressive calendar that was considered illegal by the Council of State, seized in particular by plastics manufacturers, the highest administrative body judging that the State had exceeded the mandate that had been set within the framework of the law of fight against waste and circular economy.
The latter had “entrusted the Government with the task of listing the only fruits and vegetables that presented a risk of deterioration if they were sold in bulk, in order to exempt them from the ban on plastic packaging permanently,” explains the Council of France. State in a press release.
“Avoiding more than a billion unnecessary plastic containers every year”
The list being declared illegal, “Decree No. 2021-1318, of October 8, 2021, regarding the obligation to present unprocessed fresh fruits and vegetables for sale and without containers made entirely or partially of plastic material” is cancelled. , concludes the Council of State, following in this the opinion of the public speaker issued on November 14.
In addition to redefining a list, the State must pay the sum of 2,000 euros to the Alliance Plasturgie & Composites du futur union, the Polyvia union, the French Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Cooperation (Felcoop) and the interprofessional association of fresh fruit and vegetables .
Before this ban came into force, 37% of fruit and vegetables in France were sold in plastic packaging. The ban on these containers, targeting around 30 of them, should “avoid more than a billion unnecessary plastic containers each year,” the government said last year. President Emmanuel Macron had stressed in September 2021 that France would be “the first country to no longer have plastic around (its) fruit and vegetables”, promising a “true revolution”.
Source: BFM TV
