Returning his glass jar of spread so that it is filled again? France will set up within two years a deposit on glass packaging by first launching experiments with voluntary hypermarkets, announced Thursday the Secretary of State for Ecology, Bérangère Couillard.
The “mother of battles is to lower the production of plastic” insists Bérangère Couillard during a telephone press briefing, announcing “the return of the glass deposit” in France for bottles and jars, with the objective to phase out single-use plastic packaging in 2040.
“Experiments next year, generalization within two years”
“For the reuse of glass, there will be discussions of the legal framework before the end of the year, experiments which will be implemented next year, and a generalization of the network within two years”, she clarified.
Supermarkets and hypermarkets, depending on their surface area, will then have the “obligation” to take back empty glass packaging. The first experiments will be launched with voluntary hypermarkets, she said, citing Carrefour in particular “which has been very up-and-coming” on the possibility of becoming “voluntary drop-off point for empty glass packaging”.
“There will also be washing points” for bottles and jars all over the territory, she said without further details. Some have already been set up, notably in Rennes.
In early May, the Secretary of State and the Citeo eco-organizationin charge of packaging and paper management, announced the launch of standard glass bottles or jars by glassmakers such as Verallia or OI, in order to encourage food and drink manufacturers to adopt them, in order to promote their reuse.
A fund of 50 million euros to boost the transition
Bérangère Couillard specified that a fund of “50 million euros” would be intended to encourage producers to adopt these standard reusable glass containers, instead of disposable plastic.
In France, the reuse of household packaging remains “far below 1%”, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, and the objective is to reach 10% of packaging reused in 2027.