Op-Ed in Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France — Politics section · June 23, 2019 · Op-ed by Thibault Lamarque, president of Castalie
In an op-ed published by *Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France*, Thibault Lamarque, president and founder of Castalie, sounds the alarm about plastic pollution and the limitations of recycling. In it, he denounces the “hidden side” of bottle recycling and calls for a national awareness campaign as well as strong measures to promote tap water. It is a forceful plea against single-use bottled water.
Key takeaways
- In his op-ed dated June 23, 2019, Thibault Lamarque, president of Castalie, warns about plastic pollution, noting that, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
- The president of Castalie that France ranks among the top three countries in Europe, with 9 billion liters of bottled water consumed annually, in a growing market that generated more than 4 billion euros in revenue in 2019.
- Thibault Lamarque claims that, in French cities, fewer than one in ten plastic bottles is actually recycled—a far cry from the “one in two” figure cited by bottlers.
- He exposes the “hidden side” of recycling—energy, water, and chemical consumption; the lower quality of recycled plastic; and outsourcing to Third World countries—and challenges the notion that recycled plastic is a component of the circular economy.
- In his op-ed, Thibault Lamarque examines the imbalance between the communications efforts of public water utilities and the colossal marketing budgets of multinational bottled-water companies, which he names specifically: Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Danone.
- The president of Castalie plastic bottles to asbestos, cigarettes, and diesel: an absurdity that, in his view, we will look back on with regret in the future.
- He proposes concrete measures: a national awareness campaign, a ban on plastic bottles in government offices and schools, the distribution of reusable water bottles, a tax on small-sized bottles, and an increase in the number of drinking water fountains in public spaces.
- Thibault Lamarque sums up his belief with a statement he has championed ever since: “The best plastic bottle isn’t the one that’s recycled, but the one that isn’t produced in the first place.”
Source: Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France, Politics section, June 23, 2019 — op-ed by Thibault Lamarque. Read the original op-ed
