Three environmental groups are filing a lawsuit against the French food giant Danone over its global plastic pollution.
ClientEarth, Surfrider Foundation Europe, and Zero Waste France have filed the lawsuit against the company, whose annual sales top more than €24bn, in the Paris Tribunal Judiciaire – the equivalent of the UK High Court.
The three argue that Danone is not doing enough to reduce its plastic footprint. Under France’s Duty of Vigilance law, companies over a certain size a required to assess and prevent the impacts their operations have on the environment and human rights, via a ‘vigilance plan.’
According to ClientEarth, Danone is ‘failing to live up to its duties under the law.’
The groups had formally put Danone on notice back in September last year, giving the company the opportunity to rectify its ‘vigilance plan.’ While the company did reply to the formal notice letter, the three NGOs argue that the response was ‘insufficient and did not adequately address their demands.’
ClientEarth accuses Danone’s ‘vigilance plan’ of “being completely silent on plastics’ while it remains one of the top ten biggest plastic polluters globally. In 2021, Danone used more than 750,000 tonnes of plastic for its packaging – the equivalent of almost 75 Eiffel towers – more than it did in 2020.
Danone owns well-known brands such as Evian, Volvic, and the Activia yoghurt business. It boasts products in more than 120 countries. It also has a large presence in countries which, as ClientEarth writes, ‘are on the receiving end of the Western world’s plastic excesses’, putting further strain on their management facilities, such as Tunisia, Turkey, and Indonesia.
Danone has topped the plastic polluter ranking in Indonesia for the last three years.
“Danone is trudging ahead without a serious plan to deal with plastics, despite clear concern from climate and health experts and consumers, and a legal obligation to face up to the issue,” said Rosa Pritchard, ClientEarth plastics lawyer.
“It continues to rely on single-use plastic packaging in the hopes that recycling will miraculously deal with the flood of plastics it’s put on the market. But recycling is a limited solution as only 9% of plastics ever made have been recycled. It’s unrealistic for food giants like Danone to pretend recycling is the silver bullet.
“It’s 2023 and high time Danone started implementing proper solutions such as refill and reuse beyond a few pilots to give consumers real access to a sustainable model. It needs to deplastify now.”
Solutions for reducing plastic in the food sector include eliminating unnecessary packaging, rethinking product design, and shifting to reusable or refillable packaging models.
Pritchard added: “The momentum around plastics litigation has been building fast – and it’s only the beginning. Companies across the plastics value chain, from fossil fuel companies to consumer goods giants and waste management companies, should be on high alert.”
The next steps in the court case will be determined by a judge in an initial hearing in the next couple of months.
ClientEarth, Surfrider Foundation Europe, and Zero Waste France are asking Danone to map the impacts its use of plastics has on the environment, climate, health and human rights from production to end-of-life; Provide a complete assessment of its plastic footprint, including plastics used in producing the product it sells, plastics used in logistics and promotions and plastic packaging; and put together a deplastification plan with quantified and dated objectives and act on it.
