In order to best prepare you for this transition towards more environmentally friendly packaging for your takeaway sales, here is the information to remember about packaging that is already banned or will be banned in the coming months, and the alternatives that exist for eco-responsible packaging.

 

Plastic packaging that will be banned in 2021: targeted products, deadlines and environmental impacts.

 

Like single-use plastic bags, which have become the symbol of the fight against plastic pollution, disposable cups and plates sold empty can no longer be distributed. And now it's the turn of disposable trays and other plastic packaging which were used to be filled with good takeaway meals. While the deadline for the ban on multiple packaging under the ecological transition law originally planned for the beginning of 2020 has already been pushed back by one year, as of January 1st 2021, the Circular Economy Act will ban the following items, allowing 6 more months to get rid of one's stock.

 

Will have to be phased out by July 1st 2021 at the latest:

 

  • disposable straws, disposable cutlery, drink stirring sticks, cup lids and steak skewers made from single use plastic and bioplastic

  • disposable cardboard plates with plastic lamination and plastic plates

  • plastic cups even when they are filled and therefore used as packaging (for cups made of cardboard with plastic lamination, a decree is planned to set the maximum plastic content, which will be progressively reduced)

  • packaging made of expanded polystyrene (boxes, bottles, glasses and cups), used in particular in fast-food outlets

  • oxo-fragmentable" or "oxo-degradable" plastic packaging These are made from a plastic that breaks down into particles invisible to the naked eye under the effect of light, particles that remain polluting for the environment, especially for the seas and oceans in which they often end up.

 

All of these bans will often be applied throughout the entire European Union in the coming years, and will therefore mark fundamental changes for the catering and take-away sales.

 

What are the choices to replace  plastic food packaging?

 

Today more and more solutions are available to you to remove plastic from your packaging, and be ready for a transition to materials that are more respectful of the planet and our oceans. Biosourced and compostable raw materials like for example bamboo,  offer a more sustainable alternative to disposable dishes, and different packaging all alike those made of paper, cardboard or wood, the choice is increasingly wide to replace plastic food packaging.

 

As for Eocrep, we have chosen bagasse, a fibrous residue from sugar cane that provides a compostable and eco-responsible material. Thanks to the rapid growth rate of its raw material, bagasse is a renewable material wich still offers all advantages of an efficient packaging: keeping warm, liquid-tight and resistant to grease, for more responsible and still good takeaway meals! For us, this is the most environmentally friendly solution available to date, in order to eliminate plastic from our catering methods once and for all.

 

To improve your take away sales, please have a look on our take-away guide, which gives you precious advice, collected from fellow restaurant owners.