BRUSSELS — The French would call it deux poids, deux mesures — literally, “two weights, two scales” — or a double standard, for us anglophones.
At the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games that started Friday night, you won’t be able to bring in plastic bottles. But Coca-Cola, which has exclusive rights to sell drinks at the games — well, they can sell you a drink from one.
The different treatment isn’t an attempt to make Coca-Cola more money but rather to help slash the carbon footprint of the Olympic games.
The Paris planners have committed to halving the carbon output of the massive global get-together compared to the recent (nonpandemic) summer games in 2016 and 2012. And a significant part of that plan is replacing single-use plastic containers with reusable cups.
