The French government’s ban on disposable plastic crockery and cutlery breaks EU regulations, the Brussels-based trade group Pack2Go has charged. According to reports, the association representing packaging producers is also threatening legal action if the European Commission lets the legislation proceed.

Earlier this month, France became the first country in the world to ban plastic cups, plates and utensils that are not made from biomaterials. From January 2020, all disposable tableware will be required to be made from 50% biologically-sourced materials and be compostable. That figure will rise to 60% by January 2025.

Eamonn Bates, Pack2Go’s secretary general, said the move specifically violates the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.  While the packaging directive has been one of Europe's most successful pieces of single market legislation, combined with an important and necessary environmental objective, and has laid the foundation for today's circular economy thinking, he said the circular economy “is not based on bans but on systems to recapture used resources.”

The association’s president, Mike Turner, added: “France is flying in the face of the EU's free movement of goods rules, and this action is totally out of proportion to the environmental risk that disposable plastics tableware represents in reality.” Critics argue that there is insufficient proof of the environmental benefits from using bio-based materials, and the measure could actually make littering worse if consumers believe that discarded items made from plant-based plastics will readily decompose.

"Finding a package that meets the really critical food hygiene requirements that consumers want, that can also be composted in a domestic composter...right now they don't exist," said Bates. France’s new law was introduced by Ségolène Royal, minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, as part of her “Green Growth” plan to halve landfill waste by 2025 and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

According to the French Association of Health and Environment (ASEF), the country throws away 4.73 billion cups every year and only 1% is recycled, largely because handling material made of a combination of PP and PS is extremely difficult. The French ban on retailers giving away free plastic bags to customers went into effect on Jul. 1, delayed from the original timing of Jan. 1, 2016.