The war against plastic continues, but this time on the legal front. The NGOs Zero Waste France, Clientearth and Surfrider Foundation Europe have served formal notice on nine major food and retail companies for failing to comply with their duty of care regarding plastic, "after years of dialogue and repeated alerts" .
These three organizations require groups to Danone, Auchan, Carrefour, Casino, Lactalis, Les Mousquetaires, Picard Surgelé, Nestlé France and McDonald's France a plan for the deplastification of all their activities within three months. "In other words, we expect them to place a net reduction in their plastic use as a priority goal." they say.
The duty of vigilance enshrined in the law
Antidia Citores, a Surfrider lawyer and spokesperson for the coalition, states: "How is it possible that in 2022, when French law requires them to do so, the vigilance plans of some of these companies are non-existent? How can we accept that most of them do not provide any plastic assessment of their activities and avoid the impact of plastic use on health and human rights? Some of these plans even imply that the solution of recyclable packaging solves the environmental issue, which is false.
It is based on the law on duty of care. Adopted in March 2017, this law obliges large French companies (with more than 5,000 employees in France or 10,000 with their foreign subsidiaries) to mitigate and prevent risks and violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, human health and safety, and the environment, resulting from their activities.
However, the use of plastic brings "a serious and irreversible damage to the environment" in the words of the NGOs, "also impacts the safety and health of people" and is "a global threat to human rights" the organizations.
Adopted in 2017, this law requires French companies to reach the risks and prevent serious harm resulting from their activities. The vigilance measures cover all the activities of the company and its subsidiaries. The three NGOs emphasize that these vigilance plans must concern the entire life cycle of the product (production, distribution, packaging). "As for recycling, it can be a secondary objective provided that it does not mask the lack of reduction
Measures deemed insufficient or non-existent
While these companies belong to the 10 global groups that produce the most plastic waste in the world - Nestlé and Danone - they propose vigilance plans "at best, insufficient to identify risks and prevent harm, at worst non-existent" points the finger at the collective.
If this formal notice remains without effect, the three NGOs plan to bring the matter before the Paris court and file a request for an injunction to order the companies to publish a compliant vigilance plan and to implement the appropriate measures to mitigate the risks and prevent serious harm related to the use of plastics.
