Bill Text: NY A00207 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Provides that restaurants may provide single-use plastic straws to customers when explicitly requested by the customer; prohibits single-use plastic stirrers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 34-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-17 - advanced to third reading cal.417 [A00207 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-A00207-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           207

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                       (Prefiled)

                                     January 6, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL, LUPARDO, TAYLOR, GLICK, NIOU, GOTT-
          FRIED,  BARRON,  J. RIVERA, SEAWRIGHT, SIMON, GALEF, BARRETT, BRONSON,
          STECK, WEPRIN, FAHY, RAMOS, REYES, EPSTEIN, PAULIN, COLTON  --  Multi-
          Sponsored  by  --  M.    of A. THIELE -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Environmental Conservation

        AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law and the general busi-
          ness law, in relation to prohibitions on single-use plastic straws and
          stirrers in restaurants

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Article 27 of the environmental conservation law is amended
     2  by adding a new title 31 to read as follows:

     3                                  TITLE 31
     4                   PLASTIC STRAW AND STIRRER RESTRICTIONS
     5  Section 27-3101. Definitions.
     6          27-3103. Single-use plastic straws and stirrers.
     7          27-3105. Enforcement.
     8  § 27-3101. Definitions.
     9    For  the purposes of this title, "restaurant" means any diner or other
    10  eating or beverage establishment, which offers for sale food or beverag-
    11  es to the public,  guests,  members,  or  patrons,  whether  consumption
    12  occurs on or off the premises.
    13  § 27-3103. Single-use plastic straws and stirrers.
    14    1.  (a)  Restaurants  shall  only provide single-use plastic straws to
    15  customers when explicitly requested by the customer.
    16    (b) No inquiry into the reason for the request  shall  be  made  by  a
    17  restaurant  or  any of its employees in carrying out the request author-
    18  ized by paragraph (a) of this subdivision.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD00359-02-1

        A. 207                              2

     1    2. Restaurants are prohibited from providing customers with single-use
     2  plastic stirrers.
     3    3.  (a)  Nothing  in  this  section  shall  preclude a restaurant from
     4  providing customers with non-plastic straws or stirrers as  an  alterna-
     5  tive  to  single-use  plastic  straws  and  stirrers, including, but not
     6  limited to, straws and/or stirrers made from paper, sugar  cane,  bamboo
     7  or compostable materials.
     8    (b) Restaurants that provide compostable straws or stirrers to custom-
     9  ers are required to have access to curbside collection of food waste for
    10  composting.
    11    4.  Single-use  plastic  straws  provided by a restaurant, pursuant to
    12  subdivision one of this section, shall not be  individually  wrapped  in
    13  plastic,  except  for  prepackaged  individual serving beverages where a
    14  plastic straw is included in the packaging.
    15  § 27-3105. Enforcement.
    16    Every local department of health shall  ensure  compliance  with  this
    17  title as part of an inspection of a food place pursuant to section thir-
    18  teen  hundred  fifty-one of the public health law, the provisions of the
    19  sanitary code and provisions of local ordinances or  regulations.    Any
    20  establishment  that  violates  this  title  shall  be liable for a civil
    21  penalty in the amount of two hundred dollars for  the  first  violation,
    22  three  hundred dollars for the second violation committed on a different
    23  day within a period of twelve months, and five hundred dollars  for  the
    24  third and each subsequent violation committed on different days within a
    25  period  of  twelve  months,  except  that the local department of health
    26  shall not issue a notice of violation, but shall  issue  a  warning  and
    27  provide  information  on compliance with such section, for any violation
    28  that occurs within one year of the effective date of this section.
    29    § 2. The general business law is amended by adding a new section  399-
    30  tt to read as follows:
    31    §  399-tt.  Single-use  plastic straws. Restaurants shall only provide
    32  single-use plastic straws to customers where explicitly requested by the
    33  customer pursuant to title thirty-one of  article  twenty-seven  of  the
    34  environmental conservation law.
    35    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
    36  it shall have become a law.
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