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Food delivery companies in France pledge to cut waste

February 15, 2021 GMT

FILE - In this March 19, 2020 file photo, a food delivery service man rides his bike in Paris. Some 19 meal delivery companies in France including Uber Eats and Deliveroo have pledged to the French government to reduce their operational waste. With the pandemic-forced closure of restaurants, there has been a boom in home food delivery -- generating more waste that ever before. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

PARIS (AP) — Nineteen meals delivery companies in France including Uber Eats and Deliveroo have pledged to the French government to reduce their operational waste, officials said Monday.

With the pandemic-forced closure of restaurants, there has been a boom in home food delivery -- generating more waste that ever before.

The companies have now signed a charter to end the systematic delivery of disposable cutlery and sauces from next month, to set a 2022 target to use 100% recyclable packaging and limit single-use plastic packaging to 50%.

A French government committee will monitor the companies’ progress every six months.

In 2019, even before the pandemic, the country of 67 million recorded as many as 600 million items of single-use packaging from home deliveries going into the trash.