France

A missed opportunity

France’s Anti-Waste Law for a Circular Economy was widely acclaimed as a ‘world-first’ in its ambition to tackling waste a wide range of sectors, from fast fashion to fast food. Deemed as forward thinking, the law included targets for reuse – 5% of packaging units put on the market by 2023, and 10% by 2027.

However, crucially the systems to achieve such targets – namely deposit return systems – were not defined and lobbying behind the scenes by several industry actors and municipalities has delayed the introduction of such proven solutions by at least five years. This case of France shows a missed opportunity by the government in preventing plastic pollution.