NGOs at the origin of this unprecedented action criticize the agrifood giant, among the largest plastic users in the world, for not having a plastic outlet trajectory. Danone challenges criticism.
by Stéphane Mandard
After Totalenergies and its petroleum megaproject in Uganda and Tanzania, Danone will have to account for justice. The French agrifood giant was assigned, Monday, January 9, before the Paris court for non-compliance with the duty of vigilance in matters of plastic.
Three non -governmental organizations (NGOs) are at the origin of this unprecedented procedure: Surfrider Foundation Europe, Zero Waste France and Earth client. NGOs ask Danone to publish a new vigilance plan incorporating a “deplasticization” trajectory, that is to say the exit of the plastic, on the model of the decarbonation plans of the industry. Otherwise, they claim that the group be sentenced to a penalty of 100,000 euros per day of delay beyond a period of six months.
Associations also request justice so that society “ceases ecological damage” that they consider linked to its activities. Contacted by MO12345lemonde, Danone “firmly refutes” the reproaches addressed to him and ensures that his vigilance plan “meets the requirements set by the legislator.” The group will now have to develop its arguments during the trial which should be audience by here to Three years, if we rely at the rate of other procedures initiated on the basis of the law on the duty of vigilance.
MOTE MEASURE
adopted in 2017 after the drama of the Rana Plaza (a thousand workers in textile multinationals had perished in the collapse of a building in Bengladesh in 2013), it imposes on companies with more than 5,000 employees to implement a plan aimed at identifying risks and preventing serious attacks on human rights, health and the environment that may result from their activities.
For associations, plastic is one of these risks by the protean threat it represents throughout its life cycle: its production based on the extraction of fossil fuels contributes to global warming, the waste that It generates pollute the oceans and undermine biodiversity, its collection and recycling jeopardize the health and the rights of millions of precarious workers in developing countries.
In September 2022, the Coalition of NGOs had put in notice nine giants of the food and distribution (Danone but also Carrefour, Auchan, Casino, Les Mousquetaires, Lactalis, Nestlé, McDonald’s France, Nestlé France and Picard ) to comply with the law in plastic. She had given them three months to adopt plastic exit plans before seizing justice.
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