Nantes: the end of plastic bags at the Petite Hollande market, it is not won
First day without plastic bags at the weekly market of Petite Hollande in Nantes, in theory, because on all the stalls, and in the hands of customers, we find them. The initiative of the municipality is obviously not unanimous. With merchants, as with customers.
Every Saturday, the vision of the Place de la Petite-Hollande, after the departure of the last customers and shopkeepers, is appalling. White plastic bags, everywhere, fly in all directions and end up in the nearby Loire. A degrading image that many Nantes residents no longer want to see. The municipality therefore undertook to convince traders and customers to give up these plastic bags, which large retailers have been eliminating for some time now.
This Saturday morning is the first day of the implementation of this renunciation decision. No more unsightly bags that pollute and are dangerous for the fauna of the river. After consultation, and several weeks of preparation, the measure, a priori common sense, must take effect. Except that, between good intentions and reality, there is a difficult step to cross.
"Do you have a bag?" One hears at the fishmongers to the address of the customers. Not easy to wrap wet fish in paper. "We've been talking about it with our customers for a fortnight or three weeks. We have chosen to sell the plastic bags for 10 cents, so that people come back with them the next time," says the oyster seller from Moutiers. -in Retz. Kind of like an instruction.
On the surrounding stalls, the fishmongers have made the same choice, selling a reusable bag. An elderly customer, who chooses a few small soles, reacts, "after all, the fishmonger used to wrap the fish in newspaper and no one found fault with it". She stops and smiles, delighted, at this childhood memory. And changes his mind, "except that now everyone reads the newspaper on their tablet, even me". She shrugs her shoulders, and bursts into a happy laugh.
Because the plastic bag has some advantages over newspaper, even more so on the tablet. No staining ink, relatively waterproof. Not easy to part with for the fish certainly.
At the corner of an alley, at Kim's, Boramy prepares his Asian cuisine. The scent of spices is delicious. A beautiful bundle of white bags hangs from the umbrella. "These, we can use them" indicates the young woman, with an accent as exotic as the perfume of her cooking. They look solid. "These no longer at all", showing thin, crumpled sachets. "But I wrap my spring rolls in aluminum foil, it's perfect for preserving the taste of the food and the heat". Do customers comment on it? "I can't argue with my clients, my boss says no it's no, but she's not the one in front!"
Caterers, butchers, butchers can easily do without plastic bags. Almost none use them yet. But at the fruit and vegetable merchants? It's not win. Finally, we find them in two categories, those for whom it is normal, they are rather organic, or sensitive to environmental issues, and for the others, how to say so as not to offend anyone, with origins from the south of the Mediterranean, for whom, it is a form of social culture.
There, the plastic bag seems unavoidable, and for customers too. One of them, visibly insensitive to environmental issues, points out that "if the city employees picked up faster, it would steal less". Is he kidding? No, he's not joking, "if everyone did their job it would be fine!" Here, seen like that, plastic bags should fly less in the wind!
Two aisles away, the organic market gardener asks an interesting question, "why on the other markets in the metropolis, such as Rezé or Bouaye", where she sets up her stall, "isn't the same measure applied" ? Not for her this question, as plastic does not seem to be part of her DNA! Perhaps because these municipalities did not take the same decision, for lack of the Loire nearby? We try with a little irony. "Yes but no, on the leaflets that were distributed to us, it is indicated Nantes Métropole". Indeed, not all the markets in the Nantes conurbation are moving in the direction of... common sense!
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