With only a few days to go before the January 1, 2026 deadline, the ban on disposable cups containing plastic has undergone a serious U-turn. While the industry has been preparing for this for over three years, the French Ministry of Ecological Transition has just submitted for consultation a draft decree proposing to postpone the ban until 2030.
A decision based on the DGPR's technical report
This change of direction is based on a report drawn up by the Direction Générale de la Prévention des Risques (DGPR), dated November 2025. According to this document, technical solutions for eliminating plastic from âeuro disposable cups, particularly those with a âeuro polyethylene barrier, are not available at a sufficiently mature level for implementation on an industrial scale.
In line with the 2019 European Single-Use Plastics (SUP) directive and France's Antigaspillage pour une économie circulaire (Agec) law, the 2021 decree set a trajectory for the gradual reduction of plastic content. Today, and since January 1, 2024, only single-use cups containing up to 8% plastic are allowed.
The new text proposes to push back the final deadline to 2030, while maintaining the objective of one plastic-free cup. An interim review is scheduled for 2028 to assess technological progress, and a stock clearance period is also envisaged for cups manufactured or imported before this date.
Advanced solutions, but still limited
With a view to replacing these plastic films, several technical solutions have been evaluated. The DGPR report classifies the technologies according to their level of technological maturity.
Among the most advanced processes are aqueous coatings of synthetic polymers, such as acrylic or styrene-butadiene copolymers. Their level of development is considered advanced, but these materials are still defined as plastics in the regulatory sense, and their recyclability is not systematically guaranteed.
Technologies still in the pilot stage
Other processes are still in the experimental phase. Silica sol-gel deposition offers an effective barrier to water and grease, but requires the addition of an adhesive for sealing, which limits its use on three-dimensional packaging. Its level of maturity is assessed at mid-term. Alumina chemiglassing, by gas-phase deposition, enables very thin layers to be produced, but has not yet been validated for food contact.
The Janus process, based on plant components, has been industrialized for pellet production, but has not yet been adapted to cup production. Lastly, ultrasonic welding techniques are being developed to compensate for the lack of heat-sealability on certain alternatives, although they do not constitute a solution in themselves.
A technically untenable deadline
It is on the basis of this technical assessment that the French Ministry of Ecological Transition is proposing to extend the deadline to 2030. The DGPR concludes that, despite the efforts made, none of the alternatives studied currently enables the production of plastic-free cups on an industrial scale.
