Last week, the worldwide fight against climate change witnessed a hugely significant development as France passed a new law banning plastic cups, plates and cutlery – making it the first country in the world to do so.

The new law, which will come into effect in 2020, will mean that all plastic crockery and cutlery must be made of at least 50% biologically-sourced material to ensure they can be composted. By 2025, that figure will increase to 60%.

According to the French Association of Health and Environment (ASEF), 150 single-use cups are discarded every second in France, equivalent to 4.73 billion every year. Meanwhile just 1% of them is recycled, due in part to their being made up of a polypropylene/polystyrene mix.

Since the new law was announced, calls have been made to implement the ban across Europe. Arash Derambarsh, the municipal councillor in Paris who campaigned successfully to ban French supermarkets from throwing away unsold food earlier this year, said: “This problem of recycling exists in all European countries; we have to pass the same law to tackle this very important problem of waste.“

He went on to describe the ban as “a good step, but not the last step,” and we couldn’t agree more. Although the TrakRap range of innovative pack designs reduce the amount of packaging that is required and all are 100% recyclable, we still attempt to further increase energy efficiency wherever possible.