The city council of Paris adopted a resolution this week to formally join WWF’s Plastic Smart Cities (PSC) initiative. Among the city’s ambitious plans, is to eliminate single-use plastics (SUPs) in the city by 2024.
Earlier in May 2021, the city of Amsterdam, notably the first city to join PSC, invited the city of Paris during the city’s annual conference on Zero single-use plastic, to join them and the PSC community to lead the global fight against our growing plastic waste stream.
Paris has stepped up to meet that challenge, and is now moving quickly on implementing plastic smart initiatives, and has already adopted an ambitious city action plan for 2022-2024, with a strong focus on eliminating SUPS. Paris’ actions on plastic waste prevention and management will be at center stage for the world to see during the 2024 Summer Olympic games.
Paris, along with other cities in France are also supported by strong national legislation that bans certain SUPs from use. Already in May 2022, a global audience of the famed French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, saw reusable water bottles in use by all athletes, a first in the tennis major tournament circuit. Single-use plastic bottles are now banned from sports events in France, serving as a case example for other policy interventions to follow.
Congratulations Paris, welcome to the PSC community!
