A bill intended to cut plastic waste would allow eateries to give out single-use cutlery and condiments only if customers request them. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)
A divided Legislature approved a bill Monday that would limit restaurants’ ability to provide their customers with plastic utensils and condiment packets.
The bill, if signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy, would require full-service restaurants to provide dine-in customers with only washable, reusable utensils, and it would bar them from giving takeout customers single-use cutlery unless the customer asks for it.
Casual dining restaurants, like fast food restaurants, would be able to provide disposable utensils or single-use condiment packets to all customers only upon request.
In all cases, restaurants would only be able to provide customers with single-use utensils and condiments in the amounts a customer requests.
“We have the single-use bags under control in New Jersey. Literally billions of bags are being taken out of the environment. I’m hoping with the utensil bill that we’ll greatly reduce the amount of plastics that are out in the environment,” said bill sponsor Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), who chairs the body’s environment committee.
The Senate approved the measure in a narrow 21-15 vote (21 votes are needed to pass). It passed the Assembly 43-24.
School cafeterias, health care facilities, and correctional facilities would not be subject to the bill’s restrictions, and it would not apply to food court restaurants until two years after it goes into effect.
Smith said he hopes changes in how the public views plastics would eventually end the need for those exemptions, which he said helped secure the bill’s passage.
“I’m hopeful that there’ll be an evolution. The truth of the matter is that the reasons for the requests for exemptions are pretty weak,” he said.
The bill would also permit casual dining restaurants to make single-use utensils available through self-serve dispensers, a provision key to winning support from some of the bill’s one-time opponents.
“We appreciate Senator Smith’s willingness to work with us and to incorporate several of our proposed amendments to improve the bill’s workability, including allowing utensils and condiments to be made available in open, self-service trays,” said Amanda Stone, vice president of public affairs for the New Jersey Restaurant and Hospitality Association. “We believe collaboration is essential to reducing waste without placing unnecessary burdens on small businesses or their customers.”
The measure won little support from Republican lawmakers.
Assemblyman John Azzariti (R-Bergen) said the ban would boost costs for New Jersey businesses and inconvenience consumers even before considering the fines that would enforce the prohibition.
“People by and large do not like the plastic bag ban, and they will not like the limitations on plastic utensils and micromanagement of condiments by this legislation,” he said on the Assembly floor.
All food service businesses would be barred from dispensing packets containing multiple disposable utensils or condiments 12 months after the bill goes into effect. The bill goes into effect at the start of the seventh month following its signing.
Prepackaged food items that come with a disposable utensil or single-use condiment would be exempt from the bill’s restrictions, and the bill would not bar restaurants from providing single-use cups for condiments.
Restaurants that violate the bill’s limits would first face a warning. On a second offense, they would face a $100 fine, which escalates to $250 for subsequent offenses. Money collected by those fines would flow into a state fund that pays for litter pickup, recycling grants, and graffiti removal.
The move to limit the use of disposable utensils is the latest in a series of moves to lessen the amount of plastic waste in New Jersey.
The state has barred grocery stores and food service businesses, among others, from dispensing single-use plastic bags and some polystyrene foam packaging since May 2022, and stores have been barred from providing plastic straws absent a customer request since late 2021.
Smith said he hopes to pass legislation requiring packaging producers to incrementally reduce their use of non-recyclable packaging and phase out certain hazardous packaging materials.
“Not that I’m happy with any plastics, but you shouldn’t be using plastics with toxins in them. That’s like a double or triple hit. That will be the next step, I hope, in the next term,” Smith said.
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