Single-use plastics directive by country: France adds 13 measures beyond the EU ban list, Ireland adds 1

What the EU single-use plastics ban list covers

Article 5 is one sentence. It reads in full: “Member States shall prohibit the placing on the market of the single-use plastic products listed in Part B of the Annex and of products made from oxo-degradable plastic.” The SPI rule note for PR-EU-014 records that the Directive rests on Article 192(1) TFEU, the environment legal basis, which is why it binds businesses only through national law.

The list is narrow by design. The Directive treats cups and food containers made of other plastics as Part A items under Article 4, where Member States must achieve a measurable quantitative reduction in consumption by 2026 compared with 2022, and may restrict them on the market by derogation from the old packaging directive (EUR-Lex). That is the door through which several of the seven countries walked to add charges and targets.

The Commission’s guidelines of 7 June 2021, as summarised in the PR-EU-014 rule note, set the tests that national lists then borrow. A paper plate with a plastic lining is a plastic plate. Polymers made by fermentation, such as PHA, and chemically modified ones, such as cellulose acetate, count as plastic, so a bio-based fork is usually banned. Binders used only as processing aids do not make a paper straw plastic, but a coating does.

Seven markets, seven start dates

The Directive set one date. The seven national acts arrived across almost three years (Exhibit 3).

France started first. Article 77 of the AGEC law, loi n° 2020-105 of 10 February 2020, set 1 January 2020 for disposable plastic cups, glasses and plates sold in lots, and 1 January 2021 for straws, cutlery, stirrers, cup lids, steak picks, balloon sticks, confetti and expanded polystyrene food and drink containers (Légifrance).

Germany made a dedicated ordinance. Section 3(1) of the EWKVerbotsV bans the nine Part B items, section 3(2) bans products made from oxo-degradable plastic, and section 5 puts the ordinance into force on 3 July 2021 (gesetze-im-internet.de). Ireland made S.I. No. 326 of 2021 on 2 July 2021, with its regulation 4 ban taking effect the next day; the government page, updated on 27 January 2026, now names S.I. No. 516 of 2021, as amended by S.I. No. 136 of 2022, as the transposing act.

Austria placed the ban in sections 13n and 13o of the Waste Management Act, the AWG 2002 (BMLUK). The chamber of commerce in Lower Austria told members on 11 March 2023 that the ban applied from 3 July 2021, and that products already bought in Austria could still be sold while goods imported only for resale could not. SPI has not yet confirmed from RIS the date the AWG amendment first applied; an unofficial consolidation shows the current section 13n in force since 11 December 2021.

Portugal transposed through Decreto-Lei n.º 78/2021 of 24 September 2021, whose article 4 bans the Part B list and oxo-degradable products and whose article 30 brings it into force on 1 November 2021 (Diário da República).

Spain put the ban in Article 56 of Ley 7/2022, published in the BOE on 9 April 2022. MITECO’s page lists the Part B items, oxo-degradable plastic and intentionally added plastic microspheres under 5 mm as prohibited under Article 56.

Poland came last. The ministry says the act of 14 April 2023 amending the act on business obligations for certain waste and the product fee banned the Part B items and oxo-degradable products from 24 May 2023 (gov.pl).

Single-use plastics directive by country: what each market bans beyond Article 5

Exhibit 4 is the core of this piece. SPI counted a measure where a national act bans a product, requires a charge at the point of sale, or requires a reuse option or loose sale, beyond what Article 5 requires. EU-wide duties that every Member State must apply, such as tethered caps and marking, are left out, and so are numeric reduction targets, which are in Exhibit 6.

Three dates in the exhibit need care. France’s fruit and vegetable rule is in force, but the SPI France record notes that AIDA lists Décret n° 2023-478, which set the list of exempt produce, as abrogated after a Conseil d’État decision of 8 November 2024; the ministry page still cites it. Spain’s loose-sale duty depends on a Ministry of Agriculture order listing exempt produce, which Real Decreto 1055/2022 required within six months; SPI has not yet confirmed that the order has been adopted. Germany’s reusable offer moved from the Verpackungsgesetz into section 60 of the VerpackDG of 13 July 2026, and SPI has not yet confirmed its first start date against the archived text.

France: the longest national list

France’s list is long because it started before the Directive and kept going after it. The SPI rule note for PR-FR-002 places most bans in article L. 541-15-10 of the Code de l’environnement, with product definitions in article D. 541-330, and links them to the 2015 energy transition law that removed plastic checkout bags in 2016 and 2017.

The cup ceiling shows how France goes further on a Part A item. The ministry page, updated on 4 February 2026, says partly plastic cups were allowed above 15% plastic only until 1 January 2022, then 8% from 1 January 2024, and traces only from 1 January 2026. The same page says a cup with no plastic at all is not technically feasible before 2030, which means the 2026 step turns on the meaning of traces.

In SPI analysis, most French bans bite on the business that sells or hands out the item, which places the compliance work on retail, catering and brand owners rather than converters. The SPI Ledger piece on France’s AGEC law and Triman covers the 3R targets and the 2040 goal, which this piece does not repeat.

Germany, Ireland and Austria: the EU list plus bags and reuse

The three markets with the shortest national lists share a pattern: they copied Part B closely, then regulated around carrier bags and reuse.

Germany. Section 12(1) of the VerpackDG bars final distributors from supplying lightweight plastic carrier bags intended to be filled at the point of sale, and exempts very lightweight bags needed for hygiene or offered as packaging for loose food to prevent food waste (gesetze-im-internet.de). The rule began on 1 January 2022 under section 5(2) of the Verpackungsgesetz, covering bags of 15 to 50 microns, according to the chamber of commerce in Hanau. Section 12(2) keeps the EWKVerbotsV restrictions in place. Section 60 requires takeaway sellers to offer reusable packaging at no higher price, which the SPI Ledger piece on German packaging law sets out in full.

Germany’s largest extra is not a ban. The single-use plastics fund charges producers of to-go containers, cups, bags and other items the Directive does not ban, and the SPI rule note for PR-EU-014 stresses that the ban and the levy apply to different product lists. The SPI Ledger piece on the Einwegkunststofffonds prices that levy item by item.

Ireland. S.I. No. 326 of 2021 bans the Part B list and every product made wholly or partly of oxo-degradable plastic, with the Environmental Protection Agency named as the enforcement authority (Irish Statute Book). Its one national extra in SPI’s count is older than the Directive: the plastic bag levy, which began at 15 cent on 4 March 2002 and rose to 22 cent on 1 July 2007, according to Galway County Council.

Austria. The federal business service portal, updated on 1 January 2026, says plastic carrier bags have been banned since 1 January 2020 under sections 13j to 13m of the AWG 2002, with exemptions for very light biodegradable fruit and knot bags up to 15 microns and for reusable woven bags. Section 14b, as consolidated by gesetzefinden.at, requires grocery retailers to offer reusable drinks in at least 35% of stores over 400 m2 from 1 January 2024 and 90% from 1 January 2025, with all such stores covered by the end of 2025.

Spain and Portugal: bans, charges and targets together

Spain and Portugal took a different route. They added fewer national product bans than France but combined them with charges, numeric targets and reuse duties.

Spain. Article 55 of Ley 7/2022 requires, from 1 January 2023, a price for each Part A product handed to consumers, shown separately on the receipt, and sets reductions by weight of 50% by 2026 and 70% by 2030 against 2022 (MITECO). Real Decreto 293/2018 had already banned free plastic bags from 1 July 2018, fragmentable bags from 1 January 2020 and lightweight and very lightweight bags unless compostable from 1 January 2021 (BOE). Article 7 of Real Decreto 1055/2022 adds loose sale of fresh produce, a 20% unpackaged sales area for food stores of 400 m2 or more, free unpackaged water in hospitality and, from 1 July 2023, a duty on event organisers to replace single-use bottles and cups (BOE).

Portugal. Decreto-Lei 78/2021 sets the deepest cut of the seven: cups and food containers must fall 80% by 31 December 2026 and 90% by 31 December 2030 against 2022, by plastic mass, with the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA) and the consumer affairs directorate due to assess new measures by 31 December 2025 (article 5). Its article 6 requires, from 1 January 2024, a reusable option for takeaway and delivery at no worse terms, own-container use in new vending machines and reusable utensils for dine-in. Two 2019 laws add a ban on single-use plastic tableware in food service and retail and, from 1 June 2023, a ban on very light plastic bags and plastic containers for bakery, fruit and vegetables.

Charges at the till, in each currency

Four of the seven markets put a price on single-use items at the point of sale. Each charge is shown in its own currency, and SPI does not compare them across currencies.

Poland’s regulation of 7 December 2023 fixes PLN 0.20 for beverage cups, including lids, and PLN 0.25 for food containers for food that is ready to eat, eaten on site or taken away, and enters into force on 1 January 2024 (ISAP). Within Poland’s own currency, a container costs 1.25 times a cup, by SPI’s calculation.

Portugal’s contribution applies to plastic or plastic-multimaterial packs from 1 July 2022 and to aluminium packs from 1 January 2023, under article 320 of the 2021 State Budget Law and Portaria n.º 331-E/2021 (APA). The EY tax alert of 12 July 2022 gives the amount as EUR 0.30 per pack for meals bought for takeaway, drive-in or home delivery.

A framework: four national strategies

SPI groups the seven markets by two questions: how far does the national product ban list go beyond Part B, and how hard does the state push on Part A cups and containers through targets, charges or reuse duties (Exhibit 8).

The framework is a planning device. A packaging buyer in a list-builder market needs a dated item register; in a price-and-target market, a forecast of unit volumes against the target; in a reuse-around-the-edges market, an operating model for reusable cups and containers; and in a copy-out market, a watch on EU law, because that is where the next change will come from.

Penalties and enforcement

Article 14 of the Directive leaves penalties to Member States, which must make them effective, proportionate and dissuasive and notify them to the Commission by 3 July 2021 (EUR-Lex). The texts SPI read state a ceiling in two of the seven markets.

Portugal’s decree is the clearest on who acts. Article 17 makes breaches of the article 4 ban and of the article 6 reuse duty serious economic offences, enforced by ASAE, while environmental offences go to IGAMAOT, with the tax authority and police also holding powers (Decreto-Lei 78/2021, articles 16 to 19). Germany’s section 4 EWKVerbotsV makes it an administrative offence to place a banned product on the market, whether intentionally or negligently, under section 69(1) number 8 of the KrWG.

At EU level, enforcement runs through infringement cases on transposition rather than on shops. In 2025 the Commission sent letters of formal notice on Directive (EU) 2019/904 to Poland in June and to Germany and Estonia in July. SPI has not yet confirmed any later step in the Polish or German cases.

Scenarios: what the cup and container charges move

The charges in Exhibit 7 are collected from customers, so they work on demand. SPI modelled one hypothetical takeaway operator handing out 100,000 single-use plastic food containers a year in Portugal and the same number in Poland, plus 100,000 cups in Poland, under three switch rates to reusable or non-plastic packs. The 80% switch matches Portugal’s 2026 target; 50% is a midpoint; 0% means no change.

How the PPWR changes the picture from 2030

The national lists are not the end of the story. The SPI rule note for PR-EU-014 records that the PPWR’s Annex V format bans apply from 1 January 2030 and prevail over the Directive for those formats, while anything not in Annex V stays under the Directive, so the two lists must be read together (Commission Notice C/2026/3084, section 16). Article 67(5) of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 adds extruded polystyrene food containers, beverage containers and cups to the polystyrene ban from the same date, with no transposition needed.

The PR-FR-002 note adds that the PPWR restricts plastic packs for produce lots under 1.5 kg and packaging for food eaten on site from 2030, the same thresholds France chose in 2022 and 2023. In SPI analysis, that will turn parts of the French, Spanish and Portuguese lists into an EU-wide floor and make them partly duplicative. The SPI Ledger piece on PPWR 2030 format restrictions sets out Annex V format by format.

Before then, the Commission must evaluate the Directive by 3 July 2027 under Article 15, 243 days from publication of this piece by SPI’s calculation. The PR-EU-014 note records that the review will cover coherence with the PPWR and that a legislative proposal could follow. The SPI Ledger piece on tethered caps covers the Article 6 side of that evaluation.