It’s a universal fact that mass production of plastic is terrible for the environment, but companies everywhere in the world keep at it for one reason: it’s cheap.
But thanks to new proposed taxes, this may not be true anymore in France. The French government is planning on implementing new taxes next year that increase the price of packaging made of non-recycled plastic by 10%. The idea is to incentivize consumers (and companies) to buy less plastic, or to at least purchase recycled plastic products, which, under the current proposal, would experience a 10% decrease in price.
The government has already announced plans to ban single-use plastic products like disposable utensils, plates, and cups in 2020. In 2017, they banned thin plastic bags.
France currently recycles, on average, a deplorable 22% of all plastics, a laughably small percentage for a country so large and technologically sophisticated. These regulations will ideally raise that percentage to 100% by 2025 and force companies to be more environmentally conscious, or else face hefty financial penalties. A bit step forward for France… as long as they can figure out what to do about yogurt.
