France bans plastic cups, dishes

The country is the first to ban all plastic cups, plates and silverware in a law that will take full effect in 2020. Now the country is going a step further with a measure that would ban all plastic utensils, cups, and dishes by 2020. Pack2Go, the Brussels-based organisation that represents European packaging manufacturers, said it was cpnsidering legal action.

'If they don't, we will'.

French President Francois Hollande is very supportive of the ban and the country's hope to become the world leader in environment and energy solutions. The law was proposed by a green political party in France known as the EELV.

However, while many other countries, states and cities around the world have banned plastic bags, France is the first to ban plastic single-use dishes.

In July, plastic bags were banned in French stores and supermarkets.

Bates argues that there is no proof that bio-sourced disposable cutlery is more environmentally beneficial, and that no products made from bio-sourced plastics will degrade in a domestic composting unit.

The Local reports: "The law also now plans to authorize 'domestically compostable bags made in full or in part from bio-sourced materials, ' which should replace plastic fruit and vegetable packaging in January 2017".

Environmentalists have made headway recently in their battle against the oil industry.

European packaging organizations, however, disagree with the ban on plastic (presumably because it may have a negative impact on their business). If true, that would certainly be a problem, since even compostable plastic bottles and bags can linger as litter in the ocean. Now in France, cutlery and crockery are currently being banned as a way to aid in the global effort to fight climate change.