Cups, cutlery, plates, single-use plastic straws… Toxic items for human health and the environment, banned since the 2020 french Anti-Waste and Circular Economy legislation (AGEC), yet still sold by major online and in-store retailers. France Nature Environnement (FNE) and Surfrider Foundation Europe have formally notified Amazon, TEMU, Metro, La Foir’fouille, and La Boutique du Jetable to remove these illegal products from sale.
Products Sold in Complete Illegality
Disposable cups at Metro and TEMU, plastic cutlery and drink lids on Amazon… With just a few clicks, or even directly on store shelves, one can fill a basket with items that have simply been banned from sale since 2020.
For Anne Roques, legal expert at France Nature Environnement: “These companies are selling single-use plastic products with complete impunity, leading consumers to believe that this is legal even though it is not. We are therefore asking them to remove these polluting products from sale within three months.”
This finding is shared by the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), responsible for enforcing the AGEC law. According to several investigations, one out of five companies is in violation of the ban on selling or making certain single-use plastic products available. Unfortunately, impunity persists, and these dangerous products remain freely accessible.
A Dangerous Impunity
According to Anses, certain food-contact plastic packaging, such as cups, leads to contamination of food with microplastics.
Axèle Gibert, waste-management expert at France Nature Environnement, reminds us: “Several studies have shown the presence of plastics in the human body and even in the placentas of pregnant women. Plastic products also contain numerous chemical substances that may be hazardous to health.”
Throughout their entire life cycle, plastics also have an environmental impact. 99% percent of plastics are produced from petroleum, and part of plastic products end up incinerated due to inefficient recycling channels, landfilled, or released into nature. France generates around 4.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, of which only 23% is recycled.
“For many years, Surfrider volunteers have been collecting and identifying waste on beaches. In the list of most frequently found waste, there are plastic fragments largely originating from single-use plastics. Yet single-use plastics harm ecosystems and biodiversity and contribute to the suffocation of the Ocean,” explains Cristina Barreau, coordinator of Surfrider Foundation’s aquatic waste program.
Since issuing the formal notice, initial results have been obtained: Metro’s legal department informed us that the reported products have been removed from their website. A positive response, but insufficient unless extended to all prohibited products. Without further checks by these retailers within three months, FNE and Surfrider Foundation Europe will take legal action. It is time to stop making people believe that these products—particularly harmful to health and the environment—can still be sold in France.
About Surfrider Foundation Europe
Surfrider Foundation is a group of positive activists who take concrete daily action in the field to pass on a preserved Ocean to future generations. Our mission: to raise the Ocean’s voice loud and clear! Our tools? Raising awareness and mobilizing citizens—children and adults alike (thanks in particular to 48 volunteer chapters across Europe)—using our scientific expertise to support advocacy actions and transform companies. Learn more about the organization at surfrider.eu
About France Nature Environnement
France Nature Environnement is the French federation of nature and environmental protection associations. It is the voice of a movement of 6,000 associations, present throughout French territory, both mainland and overseas.
CONTACT:
Lionel Cheylus | Media Relations Manager| +33 6 08 10 58 02 | lcheylus@surfrider.eu
Julie Gabriel | Media Relations Assistant | +33 7 87 72 69 85 | presse@surfrider.eu