Plastic glasses, knives, forks and food boxes are pictured in a takeaway restaurant in Paris Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016. France's efforts to reduce pollution will also affect nature lovers hitting the countryside for an outdoor meal. Under a controversial ban adopted last month, picnic-goers won't be able to drink their beloved rose wine in disposable plastic glasses, or to make ham and butter baguette sandwiches with plastic cutlery from 2020.

(AP Photo/Bertrand Combaldieu)

In a bold move, France has become the first country in the world to ban plastic plates, cups and cutlery.

The country passed a law last month banning all plastic; however, businesses will have until 2020 to fully comply with the new law, according to the Associated Press.

Instead of plastic, disposable dishes in France must be made from biologically sourced materials that can be composted.

This new law comes on the heels of another law passed in July that bans plastic bags in the country. While other countries have similar bans on plastic bags, France is believed to be the first to ban plastic silverware and dishes.

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France, which hosted the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015, has been a leader on climate change and this latest measure is seen as another way to reduce pollution by reducing the energy consumed and the waste produced by plastic.

While environmentalists lauded the initiative, others have criticized France for infringing on European Union rules on free movement of goods. France Environment Minister Segolene Royal, who opposed the law, argued that the ban hurts consumers because some residents who struggle financially regularly rely on plastic.

Pack2Go Europe, a Brussels-based organization representing European packaging manufacturers, says it will keep fighting to have the ban revoked.

"We are urging the European Commission to do the right thing and to take legal action against France for infringing European law," Pack2Go Europe secretary general Eamonn Bates told The Associated Press. "If they don't, we will."

Bates argued that the new dishes and cutlery "will be understood by consumers to mean that it is okay to leave this packaging behind in the countryside after use because it's easily bio-degradable in nature. That's nonsense! It may even make the litter problem worse."