Europe is beating its addiction to plastics. Why is the US so far behind?

EU laws have banished plastics from French fast-food chains, but in New York I couldn't escape throwaway culture

Though I grew up in the United States, I've spent the majority of my adult life in France - which means that every trip back" across the Atlantic has become a moment of curiosity and culture shock. Most recently, the shock was over the sheer prevalence of plastics in American daily life.

In Paris, and elsewhere in Europe, plastics are clearly on their way out and paper is in. The standard takeaway cup in coffee shops, juice bars and cafes serving hipster smoothies is paper, and when there is a straw, it's paper as well (or some other biodegradable non-plastic material). Delivery food orders arrive in paper cartons -some with a chic design touch that plastic could never replicate, unspooling like origami flowers to reveal the food within - in paper bags. Utensils, when requested, are wooden and wrapped in paper. And in grocery stores, bulk sections for pasta, nuts, dried fruit, cereals, rice and legumes are normal, as is putting those things (or your fruit and vegetables) in paper bags.