Why you might not get plastic utensils next time you go to a California restaurant

Newsom signs bills aimed at reducing litter, plastic waste in oceans, ‘greenwashing’ by companies

The long-running question at many restaurants: “Do you want fries with that?” might soon be joined with a new one: “Do you want plastic with that?”

Late Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed nine environmental bills aimed at reducing litter, toxic chemicals and plastic waste.

Among them is a measure that prohibits restaurants and food delivery services from handing out plastic forks, knives, spoons, straws, chopsticks, even ketchup and mustard packets, unless customers request them. The goal is to end the practice of restaurant employees automatically tossing plastic cutlery and condiments in take-out bags — items that are often thrown away when people get home.

The bill, AB 1276, written by Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, is the latest attempt by California lawmakers to reduce plastic pollution and other debris in rivers, creeks and the ocean.

“There’s been a huge increase in take-out food during the pandemic,” said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, a non-profit group in Sacramento. “The norm used to be that you give people disposable utensils when you give them food, but if we are eating it at home, it doesn’t make sense any more. People have metal cutlery at home.”

The bill was supported by the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, League to Save Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation and other environmental groups.

The California Restaurant Association took a neutral position after working with supporters on several changes as the bill made its way through the Legislature. The association called the measure “a bill with good intentions” and said “it forwards a cause we can all support: reducing waste.”

Starting no later than June 1, 2022, the new statewide law authorizes warnings for restaurants for the first two violations, and a fine of $25 for each day in violation after that, not to exceed $300 a year.

“This is the lowest hanging fruit,” Lapis said. “If you don’t even want the disposable plastic item, you don’t have to get it without asking for it. It doesn’t take away anything from anybody who wants it, but it gets rid of what people don’t ask for.”

The measure allows restaurants to continue offer bulk condiments, like ketchup and mustard, along with plastic or metal utensils in refillable receptacles.

Plastic pollution is a growing problem in California and across the world. From 1988 to 2017, volunteers at California’s annual coastal cleanup day picked up 1.9 million straws, utensils, cups and plates from the state’s beaches, streams and rivers.

Half the plastic that has ever existed on Earth was made since 2002. Only 9% of the plastic sold every year in the United States is recycled. Up to 13 million metric tons of it ends up in the world’s oceans each year — the equivalent of a garbage truck-full being dumped into the sea every minute — where it kills fish, birds, sea turtles, whales and dolphins that eat it or become entangled by it.

In 2016, California voters approved a statewide ballot measure, Proposition 67, to ban single-use plastic grocery bags, although the measure continued to allow them for meat, bread, produce, bulk food and perishable items.

Environmental groups have pushed in recent years without success in the state Legislature for sweeping new laws that would require companies that make plastic packaging — everything from fast-food containers to packaging that holds toys and other products inside cardboard boxes — to take back the materials and set up recycling programs.

Rebuffed, they qualified a measure in August for the November 2022 statewide ballot. If approved by voters, the measure also would ban most foam food packaging in California.

Among the other bills Newsom signed:

— SB 343 by Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) would ban companies from using the “chasing arrows” recycling logo on products unless they are recycled in communities where more than 60% of Californians live. The measure that will likely lead to only #1 and #2 plastics still being allowed to be labeled as recyclable. Other types of plastics now bear the logo, but there are few markets to recycle them. And even though residents dutifully place them in blue recycling containers, they are often thrown in landfills when recycling markets can’t be found for them.

— AB 881 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) prohibits mixed plastic waste exports to other countries from being counted as being “recycled” by cities and state officials under state laws requiring 50% of waste to be diverted from landfills. After China stopped importing plastic waste in 2017, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia have taken it, but some areas have been overwhelmed by the volume and have burned it or dumped it, leading some to end up in the ocean.

— AB 962 by Sen. Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles) removes the requirement that single-use glass bottles be crushed for recycling, which will allow them to be washed and refilled by beverage companies under health guidelines approved by the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.

“By reducing plastic pollution at the source and increasing the share of refillable beverage bottles in the marketplace, California is taking an important step away from the economy’s throwaway culture that pollutes our planet and toward a more sustainable way of living,” said Ashley Blacow-Draeger, a spokeswoman for the environmental group Oceana.