A bill now before New Jersey lawmakers would allow restaurants and other places that serve food to give out single-use cutlery and condiments only if customers specifically request them. The measure is intended to cut plastic waste. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey lawmakers have banned plastic bags and Styrofoam and barred businesses from giving out plastic straws willy-nilly.
Now the state senator leading the crusade to cut plastic waste in the Garden State is taking aim at single-use cutlery and condiment packets, saying residents chuck thousands of the pesky plastics into the garbage unused — so restaurants and other businesses shouldn’t automatically provide them.
“New Jersey citizens in general don’t want plasticware in their takeout orders unless they ask for it,” said Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), who heads the Senate’s environment committee. “Now, people just get it and then throw it away. This will help us get more plastics out of the environment.”
The bill is the “easiest lift” of a series of plastic-reduction bills now in the Statehouse pipeline, Smith said, because it wouldn’t outright ban plastic utensils and condiment packets but instead just reduce how many get distributed by requiring customers to ask for them if needed, similar to the state’s straw law.
“Why are you putting it in everything if it’s not needed? So the rationale for this is extremely logical,” Smith said.
Such restrictions — known as “skip the stuff” ordinances — already have been enacted in Hoboken, Red Bank, Jersey City, and several other New Jersey municipalities, as well as New York City.
Smith’s bill covers plastic cutlery including chopsticks and single-use condiments, although policymakers elsewhere have extended the restrictions to stirrers, napkins, and other disposables. It would apply not only to restaurants, but also food trucks, grocery and convenience stores, hospitals, schools, sports and entertainment arenas, and more.
His committee advanced the bill in October along party lines after about an hour of testimony.
Supporters decried escalating plastic production and the resulting plastic waste that chokes oceans and can take centuries to degrade. Industry critics warned switching to reusable utensils would cost too much, while school officials said students would probably trash those too and schools can’t afford dishwashers.
Smith is used to the debate.
“A lot of these things have taken more than one (legislative) session to pass — the single-use plastic bag ban, that was to two to three sessions,” he said. “But they’re helping to make New Jersey much cleaner and much greener and much healthier. So it’s worth the effort.”
He hopes his utensils bill will advance and possibly even pass the full Legislature before its summer recess starts in June. Sens. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson) and Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex) have signed on as sponsors too, while Assemblywoman Allixon Collazos-Gill (D-Essex) introduced an identical bill in that chamber earlier this month.
A harder sell, he said, are other bills now before state legislators that promise much larger reductions in plastic waste, like banning single-use plastic bottles and requiring manufacturers and distributors to reduce product packaging.
Legislators are less likely to act on those controversial bills before November’s election, when all Assembly seats are up for grabs, Smith conceded.
President Trump’s return to the White House also promises to paralyze political will and environmental progress, he said.
“There is a malaise that’s over the Legislature like a dark cloud, and the malaise is last November’s election,” Smith said. “The most impactful thing in terms of plastics is the election of Donald Trump. He’s not a big fan of recycling, renewables, anything that is environmentally oriented.”
Smith expects federal interference in state policymaking, as the Trump administration looks to thwart policies — like plastic reduction — that don’t align with their priorities.
“That’s the wild card, right? How much will the new federal government try to impose its will on the states?” he added. “The reality is we’re going to have four years of a not very environmental federal government.”
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