France's Plastic Revolution - Omar Khalifa

Aljazeera and Omar Khalifa with Earthrise present a video on France's plastic revolution.  25 million tons of plastics come from Europe every year, 5 billion are plastic cups from France alone.  The problem is relevant, but what are the innovations that entrepreneurs' are bringing up to help solve the problem?  Arash Derambarsh, a campaigner, city councilor, and Courbevoie in France talks with Omar about the previous 2015 France law not allowing supermarkets to sell plastic bags. In 2020 they will be the first to ban single-use items in the country.  

Arash tells Omar, "...we have tried to generate an ecological revolution."

Omar travels through France, to a beach, Saint-Malo, to talk with David Coti the president of AlgoPack.  Established in 2010 AlgoPack creates plastics from seaweed, specifically a brown variety that is invasive and problematic in France.  David uses seaweed as the polymer chain that is similar to petroleum-based plastics. This seaweed-based plastic can take 4-12 months to decompose vs 500+ years for petroleum plastics.

Another entrepreneur, Nicolas Moufflet, Director and Founder of a vegan plastic: Lyspackaging, tells Omar how he is generating a vegan plastic made from sugar cane.  The sugar cane is collected in Indonesia, where it is extracted to a granular that looks like plastic.  From there it is transported to France where Nicolas and his team take the granules into small tubes, and several other steps creating a vegan plastic.  Since it is a food product it can be composted in an industrial food composter. The product can take a few months to disappear completely.

So, can France stray away from their traditional ways of plastic to something new?  What needs to happen in order for France to accomplish such large goals of zero single-use plastics?  Are these solutions or temporary band-aids for something more?  Could these solutions be enough?

"...a global movement of citizens and policymakers and also businesses..."  - Arash Derambarsh

Watch the 10:36 minute video below to learn more about France's Plastic Revolution