New York’s Straw Law Will Fine Business for Giving Out Unsolicited Straws, and Also for Not Having Enough Straws

Those much-maligned single-use plastics had a brief reprieve during the pandemic, when an unfounded fear of COVID’s surface transmitting powers prompted jurisdictions to suspend their bans on bags and straws. One unfortunate consequence of our halting return to normality is that those items are back in officials’ sights.

Come November, a straw law passed by New York City in May 2021 will go into effect, leaving businesses open to fines for any number of straw-related infractions. That includes the grievous offense of providing a patron with a single-use, non-compostable plastic straw when the customer has not first requested one.

Spurred by some bad stats and bizarre social theories, cities and states started passing these “straw on request” laws in earnest in 2018. Plastics manufacturers and restaurant associations often got on board with them as an alternative to more restrictive bans.

One major source of opposition to these laws was disability rights activists, who worried that such regulations could prompt businesses to get rid of the utensil altogether, or to subject physically handicapped straw requestors to invasive questions about why they need one.

New York City’s straw law attempts to addresses this by also requiring businesses to keep a sufficient stash of single-use plastic straws in stock to be handed out upon request. Businesses are also prohibited from asking about a customer’s reason for wanting a plastic straw. – READ MORE