- Critics claim that the wooden boxes are more environmentally friendly than the plastic alternative
France has fallen victim to an EU rule on camembert packaging, which would make illegal the majority of the round wooden boxes used to transport this type of cheese since the 19th century.
A fierce debate has erupted following the proposal to synchronize packaging across the bloc with a requirement that it be recyclable by 2030.
Critics have highlighted what they say would be the prohibitive cost of recycling the wooden boxes, which they say is less damaging to the environment than the plastic alternative.
President of the French Heritage Foundation, Guillaume Poitrinal, spoke of “the madness of bureaucracy” and noted: “The wooden box – low-carbon, light, biodegradable, made in France – is better for the planet than plastic made with Saudi oil, transformed in China with electricity from coal that ends up in the oceans.’
Claire Lacroix, CEO of Lacroix, a company that manufactures boxes for the country’s largest camembert producer, said: ‘Lightwood packaging accounts for 0.001 percent of household packaging waste. It would be too expensive to set up a sorting and recycling system for it. It would be 200 times more expensive than glass.’
Camembert in its traditional round wooden box. Critics have highlighted what they say would be the prohibitive cost of recycling these boxes, which they say is better for the environment than the plastic alternative.
The EU parliament will vote on the proposal next week.
Pro-Europeans said Brussels had agreed to ban traditionally made artisan cheeses from its packaging proposal, meaning they would be allowed to keep their wooden boxes.
Pro-European daily Le Monde said dairy companies making industrial camembert, which would avoid exemption under current conditions, opposed the plan.
The newspaper argued that consumers find it difficult to tell the difference between artisanal and industrial camembert, but added that this would become clearer if the latter were packaged in plastic and the former in poplar wood.
France bought 45,148 tons of camembert last year, most of which was made industrially.
Only about 6,000 tons bore the protected label of origin given to the artisanal variety.
French European Affairs Minister Laurence Boone said the measure could anger rural voters ahead of June’s EU elections (File Photo)
MEPs in the European Parliament yesterday tabled amendments to protect camembert’s round wooden containers from the reach of EU law.
However, the Commission stressed that the rules contained nothing that would ban the boxes.
“The wooden boxes used to package cheeses such as camembert do not have a dedicated recycling circuit because it would be too expensive to create a logistics chain,” says Stephanie Yon-Courtin, a member of the European Parliament originally from Normandy comes.
The amendment would also affect the country’s Mont d’Or cheese, as well as the wooden baskets of berries and oysters sold in French markets.
French European Affairs Minister Laurence Boone said the measure could anger rural voters ahead of EU elections in June.
“If you want to caricature Europe before the elections, you start by annoying Camembert producers and their wooden packaging… that makes everyone sit up,” she said.