Twenty-five fruits and vegetables could be permanently exempted from the ban on plastic packaging. In any case, this is what is provided for in a new draft decree which was submitted for public consultation by the government on 15 December.
This consultation is open to comments from citizens until 12 January. The draft decree will replace a previous decree, canceled by the Council of State on December 9. Published in October 2021, it prohibited since January 1, 2022 the marketing in plastic packaging of a certain number of unprocessed fresh fruits and vegetables.
A first decree deemed illegal
This old decree also set exemption tolerances until June 2026 for certain particularly fragile foods such as red fruits, aromatic herbs or mushrooms. This progressive schedule and several derogations were deemed illegal by the Council of State, seized in particular by the plastics manufacturers.
According to the judges, the State exceeded the mandate which had been set for it within the framework of the law relating to the fight against waste and the circular economy. For the jurisdiction, the exemption had to be definitive or not. Pressed to review its copy, the government had assured that a “new decree, even firmer” was being drafted.
A respite until 2023 for tomatoes
In the new text, the list of fruits and vegetables exempt from prohibition is actually shorter than before, going from 43 to 25. The exemptions are this time definitive. Raspberries, strawberries, endives, spinach, mushrooms, all ripe fruits and other sprouted seeds are included in the new list of fruits and vegetables that can be marketed in plastic indefinitely.
Regarding the 18 fruits and vegetables passed from the derogation to the ban, a majority are in fact granted a period, until December 31, 2023, the time to sell the stocks. Some therefore save time, such as tomatoes, grapes and apricots. Others, on the other hand, will have to do without plastic sooner than expected (cherries, broccoli, salad).