Among changes coming to France in the New Year are two familiar items that will fade into the sunset: Paper receipts at stores, and single-use packaging and utensils at restaurants, both part of plans to fight waste and pollution.
Both measures were meant to take effect January 1st under the anti-waste law passed in 2020, but the receipt rule has now been pushed to April to allow better implementation. An estimated 30 billion sales receipts are printed each year, most of them immediately crumpled and tossed.
That's one concern; another is what the French government refers to as "dangerous substances present in cash register tickets." Customers who want a receipt can still get one, or have one emailed.
The restaurant rules are unpopular with the European Paper Packaging Alliance, which argues that most single-use containers are made of renewables and are recycled at an 82% rate, but it takes effect Sunday. Restaurants who have already implemented the new rules say a 'public awareness effort' is needed because customers who have been in the habit, for instance, of walking out with coffee cups need to understand that the new ones should be left, and that plates, knives and forks must be separated from trash.
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