PLM Solution Helps Companies Navigate the French National Pact on Plastic Packaging

In February 2019, the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, alongside a dozen French companies and NGOs including Citeo, launched the Pacte National sur les emballages plastiques (the French National Pact on Plastic Packaging). This initiative transformed the role plastics play in consumer packaging in France and has wide-ranging implications for manufacturers and retailers who are marketing products in the country.

Understanding the Pact's scope and commitments

The Pact establishes a series of concrete commitments including:

• Defining a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary as well as establishing the measures to be taken to have them eliminated.

• Requiring eco-designed packaging which is reusable, recyclable, or 100% compostable by 2025.

• Collectively reaching 60% recycling rate of plastic packaging by 2022.

• Incorporating an average of 30% recycled plastic into packaging by 2025.

• Leading awareness-raising and educational activities with the general public on the issues related to plastic pollution.

The French National Pact was designed to fit alongside the French Circular Economy Roadmap and the European Strategy on Plastics. Together, this regulation regime broadly impacts the packaging decisions of manufacturers across the world who are doing business in France. Within the Pact are timelines for compliance that require ongoing tracking and development inside manufacturers. This of course adds complexity, cost, and risk.

>> Check our blog article "Packaging Materials: A Crucial Choice for French Customers", for insights on French packaging trends

Developing a constructive model for compliance with PLM

There are two fundamental areas required for signatory retailers of the national pact to meet the various commitments: data collection and reporting. Trace One’s PLM solution enables retailers to quickly and confidently gather and report on the state of their packaging and its ability to be recycled.

Data Collection

• Collect the key information to monitor the National Pact commitments on packaging and on the recyclability of packaging.

• Packaging specification enriched for Citéo's needs and for the National Pact commitments.

Reporting

• Key indicators on National Pact commitments.

• Collection of ready-to-use Dashboards to monitor and enable the achievement of National Pact commitments.

Packaging, brand and consumer choice

The intrinsic importance of packaging for brand awareness and growth for consumer retail products is hard to overstate. According to Nielsen, 70% of consumers’ purchase decisions are made at the shelf, which means you must stand out and quickly communicate your brand’s attractiveness to new customers and loyal customers alike.

With a growing number of eco-conscious and health-conscious consumers around the world who are demanding more transparency and accountability with their purchases, there is opportunity to stand out from the competition with more concrete choices in your packaging design.

Brands that chose to focus on reducing or eliminating plastic packaging – including difficult to produce components like handles and hooks that are typically produced with plastic – may find reward with increased market share of these consumers.

The key is to have actionable data about your packaging to effectively manage the complex regulatory environment that develop with initiatives like the French National Pact on Plastic Packaging. PLM solutions are efficiently designed to provide you with just this reliable data so you can make the right decisions and quickly bring to market attractive products for consumers.

Evaluating opportunity within the Pact

Regulators and consumers alike are taking increased interest in the optimization of packaging and ensuring the minimal amount of waste in the retail industry. With aligned pressure from these actors, we also see great opportunity to get ahead of consumer trends and upcoming regulations to offer better, more transparent, and more effective products for the market.

Trace One’s PLM offers clarity for product lifecycle management, enabling leaders and teams to quickly produce, organize, and action critical business data. Speed up the specification development process, reduce costs, get to market more quickly, and realize revenue growth more quickly with the assistance of Trace One’s PLM.

The French National Pact on Plastic Packaging is here and now is the time to prepare your plastics pact declaration and act to meet the Pacte National commitments with KPI’s and projections. Reliably and quickly reach these goals and unlock retail growth with the value that Trace One provides.