France has already bid adieu to plastic shopping bags, now its time for utensils, drinkware, and dishes. 2020 is by when the manufactures of these items are to be made of biologically sourced materials and can be composted.
Several other countries and some U.S. states have also banned plastic bags, France seems to be the first country to introduce a ban on plastic dishware. It comes after Paris hosted a landmark conference last year on fighting global warming, and as the Socialist government tries to push France toward the forefront of environmental progress.
The ecologists wanted the ban to be introduced as soon as 2017 but it was postponed until 2020 because of Environment Minister Segolene Royal's initial opposition to the law. Royal deemed it an "anti-social" measure, arguing that families struggling financially make regular use of disposable tableware.
The measures will ban sales of single-use plastic cups, plates and glasses unless they are made of bio-sourced materials that can be composted in a domestic composting unit. Some argue 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.
Hopefully, the ban won't be interpreted to mean that it is okay to leave this packaging behind in the countryside after use because it's easily bio-degradable in nature.
We shop mainly at stores that encourage you to bring your own reusable grocery bags. I know there was an uproar over banning plastic bags in Baltimore City at one time. We already have a bottle tax, which is supposed to remind us to put the bottle in the trash. But when you walk from our house to the park, doesn't look like it's working.
We use plastic dishware for birthday parties and now that my oldest is a vegetarian we use plastic utensils for her meals when we go out and about on Field Trip Friday Adventures. I do have a Dollar Tree that sells utensils. I'm thinking I should be purchasing some for those occasions.
I'd like to teach my kids to be environmentally aware before the government forces me to. My son is a cub scout, the leave no trace means something to him. Leave things better than you found them. Several times, the kids have hiked in the park and picked up plastic bottles and fast food containers to place in the trashcan at the start of the trail.
Seeing people who toss trash on the ground next to a trashcan or from their vehicles onto the road as is a good start for kids to notice how lazy and uncaring people are in this world. My kids point this out all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment