Paris to ban single-use plastic at 2024 Olympic Games

The City of Paris is planning to ban single-use plastic when it holds the 2024 Olympic Games later this summer.

As reported by Reuters, ESPN, and other news outlets, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced the ban earlier this month.

“We have decided to make the Olympic Games the first major major event without single-use plastic,” Hidalgo told a press conference at a session of the International Forum of Mayors against Plastic Pollution.

Spectators bearing plastic bottles will not be admitted to competition sites. Designated Olympics sponsor Coca-Cola will serve beverages in re-usable glass bottles, and 700 water and soda fountains will be installed throughout the spectator areas and athletes’ village.

Re-usable cups will also be used for refreshments during the Olympics marathon.

“Plastic (waste) remains a major global issue: each year, 14,000 mammals and 1.4 million seabirds are killed due to the ingestion of plastic waste,” Hidalgo’s office said in a statement announcing the Olympics single-use plastic ban.

Organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics have pledged to follow an AAROM approach — anticipate, avoid, reduce, offset, and mobilize — in order to reach the overall sustainability goal of slashing the carbon footprint of previous Games in half and controlling the event’s climate impact.

The Olympic Games are being held in Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11.