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ENVIRONMENT

France to expands its anti-waste laws from January

France made global headlines back in 2016 when it banned the destruction of unsold food products. From the start of 2022, this ban will be extended to other unsold items including electronics and hygiene products.

Published: 20 December 2021 16:25 CET
A waste collector hard at work in Paris. France is to make it a crime for businesses to throw away or destroy various unsold goods.
France is to make it a crime for businesses to throw away or destroy various unsold goods. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

It will be illegal to destroy a range of unsold goods in France from January 1st – part of the government’s objective of creating a “circular economy” and reducing waste. 

Currently, some €280 million worth of unsold goods are destroyed every year in France, mostly through incineration. 

From 2022, it will be illegal to destroy the following unsold items: 

  • Electronic products
  • Textiles, clothes and shoes
  • Furniture
  • Ink cartridges
  • Hygiene products 
  • Food preservation and cooking equipment
  • Leisure products
  • Books and school equipment

The government says that importers, producers and distributors are among the main target groups of the law. When France banned the destruction of unsold food products in 2016, food distribution charities benefited greatly. There could be a similar result as a result of this new legislation, with charity organisations seeing their stock rise. 

The law allows fines of up to €15,000 for those who violate the new measures. 

This legislation is simply an extension of a law enacted in 2020, which set out strict new anti-waste rules for businesses. For a guide to what you can or can’t do as a business when it comes to waste, read our guide HERE.
 
The overarching aim of the French government is to limit environmental damage caused by economic growth and it’s part of a series of anti-waste measures that have also targeted excess packaging and single-use plastics.
 
 

Member comments

  1. This is a positive step forward and one I hope more countries will adopt. It can eventually encourage manufacturers and distributors to factor redundancy into their processes and build in recycling as a part of the product life cycle as a matter of course, not the afterthought it presently tends to be.

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ENVIRONMENT

How likely are droughts and water restrictions in France in summer 2024?

Much of France has faced severe flooding this winter, but other areas already face water restrictions, and there's an extra variable in store global weather patterns play their part

Published: 12 April 2024 17:50 CEST
How likely are droughts and water restrictions in France in summer 2024?

France’s Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) most recent report, in early March, revealed that the water table in France was ‘satisfactory over a large part of the country’, with levels above normal for the time of year in 46 percent of the country’s underground aquifers.

It warned at the time, however, that levels were low to very low in parts of Alsace, as well as in the Saône corridor and areas of Languedoc, from the south of the Massif Central to the coast, and the Roussillon area of southwest France.

March, too, was a wet month across the bulk of France – it was the fifth wettest since records began in 1958, according to national forecaster Météo-France.

Crucially however, most of the rain falling on the ground in France now will be gobbled up by vegetation, which means that very little water will make it through to aquifers. The groundwater recharge period, when underground water tables are refilled, is now over until late autumn 2024.

Basically, the water table is about as high as it’s going to get this summer.

Which brings us back to the weather.

Long-range forecasts are notoriously inaccurate but after a mild, wet winter, forecasters expect another dry, warm summer overall, following a cooler-than-normal and occasionally wet spring.

April, for example, is set to be marked by cool spells, though, for the April-May-June quarter as a whole, temperatures are expected to remain above seasonal averages. Forecasters warn that a higher-than-usual number of Spring storms could affect the south-east of the country.

Long-range models suggest, however, that June could be hot and dry, with consequences for agriculture – though groundwater levels should be high enough to cope comfortably.

Forecasting further into the summer is even less certain than normal because – over in the Pacific – El Nino is expected to be replaced by La Nina much faster than normal, making weather prediction difficult. 

The consensus is, however, that the cooling effect of La Nina will not be felt until much later in the year. That said, it will have a more immediate effect on weather activity in the North Atlantic. Forecasters are already predicting a record-breaking hurricane season – which will have an effect on French weather patterns.

Between May and July, forecast temperatures in France are likely to remain 1C to 2C above seasonal averages. Precipitation is expected to be fairly close to average, with a tendency for thunderstorms, especially in the south.

Forecast models predict a wet end to April, a fine and dry May, a hot and occasionally thundery June, and a warmer-than-normal July punctuated by thunderstorms – though some forecasts suggest more mixed weather in the north in the seventh month.

With water tables currently well recharged, the national water situation for the summer is, right now, giving experts little cause for concern. 

Thunderstorms are expected to provide occasional watering to limit surface drought, which is always possible even if water tables are well recharged. The summer of 2024 therefore looks set to be different from recent droughts. 

However, this is not to say water restrictions are not impossible, or even unlikely. In certain areas, notably the Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales, where rainfall has been well below average for years, the situation is already serious.

While the rest of the country saw high rainfall in March, these two départements were recording 50 percent less rain than normal.

These areas are already facing a range of water restrictions. To find out whether restrictions are in place where you live, consult the Vigieau website, which offers information on a national, regional and local level.

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