Plastic-free for you and me

France goes plastic-free for 2022 by banning 30 types of plastic; more improvements for our planet to come.

Plastic ban

In 2022, France has banned 30 types of plastics from being consumed. Government officials estimate this change will save a billion items of single-use plastic from being used every year. This preliminary phase is part of a larger plan to eliminate single-use plastics by 2040.

The law also requires single-use tableware to be made from at least 60% bio-sourced materials which are in turn more biodegradable. This will be put into full effect by 2025.

Other countries follow

Spain is set to follow with a plastic ban in 2023. Spain is the second-largest plastic polluter in the Mediterranean, the first is Turkey. The ban is an attempt to cut nearly two million tons of plastic waste, only less than half of which is recycled.

In Rwanda plastic is illegal. At border posts, vehicles are searched, and plastic items carry a jail sentence of up to 6 months.

Kenya’s actions are widely seen as the most severe, with possession of a single plastic bag being seen as up to four years in prison or up to a $40,000 fine. 24 million plastic bags were being used each month by Kenya, and 20 bags were found in each cow’s stomach which was killed for food.

What else can be done?

In Germany a bottle deposit scheme has been in effect since 2003, this has diverted an estimated 1.2 billion containers from landfills. Glass bottles are also included, and are sent back to manufacturers along with the plastic for cleaning.

Norway is another country to instill a bottle collection program. 97% of bottles have been returned since the program started.

USA & Canada

in 2021 Canada’s government issued a press release deeming plastic “harmful to our nature and wildlife.” The government has gone into fast action, making plans to finalize regulations and ban plastics by late 2022.

The government of Canada goes on to recognize recycling as only 9 percent of all plastic waste, thus making this ban more important.

As for the USA, legislation is slow. As of right now there are 8 states that individually ban plastic bags only. Those states include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Other than this, there has not been much serious legal talk about plastic bans.

Photo credits: Zoe Schaeffer Nick Fewings

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