A new bill just introduced in the New Jersey Legislature would prohibit food service businesses in the state from providing customers with access to single-use plastic utensils or condiments, except in certain limited cases.
According to the bill’s text, a “food service business” means a restaurant, café, food truck, vendor station, cafeteria, or any other facility or premises, or section or part thereof, including, but not limited to, a section or part of a grocery store, convenience store, hospital, school, sports arena, entertainment venue, or other similar facility or venue, where meals are prepared and served to customers for immediate consumption thereby on or off the premises, whether on a take-out, eat-in, drive-thru, or delivery basis.
“Single-use plastic utensils or condiments” is further defined by the bill to mean those utensils or condiment packets or packages which are composed of conventional plastics and are designed to be discarded, by the consumer, after a single use.
Specifically, the bill would also provide the following:
(1) no food service business operating in the State will be authorized to provide single-use plastic utensils or condiments to any customer, except upon, and in accordance with, the express request of that customer; and
(2) a food service business that has on-site seating capacity for 50 or more customers will be required to provide its on-site customers with easy access to reusable, washable utensils that may be used thereby while consuming meals on the premises, and which are to be returned to the food service business, upon completion of the on-site meal, for the purposes of cleaning and reuse.
Any food service business that elects to supply customers with single-use plastic utensils or condiments, upon customer request would be additionally required to provide each customer with only those types and amounts of single-use plastic utensils and condiments that have been expressly requested by the customer.
A food service business would also be prohibited from creating, acquiring, or providing customers with bundled utensil or condiment packages that contain more than one type of single-use plastic utensil or condiment, regardless of the nature of any customer request therefor.
Any food service business that exclusively provides its customers with eco-friendly alternative utensils and condiments would be fully exempt from compliance with the bill’s requirements.
Any non-exempt food service business that violates the bill’s provisions would be liable to a civil penalty of $1,000 for the first offense, $2,500 for the second offense, and $5,000 for the third and each subsequent offense, to be collected through a summary proceeding, and each day on which a violation occurs would constitute a separate and distinct offense.
All funds collected from penalties imposed pursuant to the bill would be deposited into the “Clean Communities Program Fund” for use in financing litter pickup, removal, education, and enforcement programs at the State and local levels.
These stupid bills wont stop the utensils from being created. It just hurts more small businesses for no reason at all. If they really wanted to stop plastics from being madr go after the companies making them.
Not hygenic
Typical liberal stupid nonsense. Always going after the middle class and blaming the rich. Thank you askanim for pushing us to vote for these clowns.
More fascistic laws by the democratic party, first they banned our shopping bags now they want to ban our eating utensils, yet we are told to vote for them.
Banning plastic utensils does not even solve the problem that the Liberals are so concerned about. Plastic is not the problem. The problem is that the plastic is being improperly disposed of.
Slaughtering the unborn must have no restrictions chopping off the healthy body parts of confused children must be allowed, but you dare to give plastic utensils to your customers so they can eat their food or plastic bags to carry their groceries in, big fines, these people are evil.
This is unconstitutional government overreach. It won’t stop here . They have no right to set such regulations.
We need to make things very clear when we vote. We are better off with less hand outs and more freedom.
As Rome burns…
“Hmm,” one New Jersey resident told reporters on Monday upon learning of the proposed legislation,” I wear my face mask all the time, so that gives me some form of protection while eating out, but I don’t know, I’m not sure what to do about the reusable utensils. That’s a real appetite killer for me, that’s for sure!”
The aforementioned NJ resident, who is single and lives alone, added: “I’m an anti virus, germaphobe kind of guy, so I guess I’ll be cooking my own meals at home from now on.”
“On those rare occasions that I DO decide to eat out,” he said, “I’ll make sure to bring along some rubbing alcohol and antibacterial soap to clean off the eating utensils both before and after I eat. I don’t want to get sick, and I don’t want anyone else to get sick either.”
“As if I didn’t already have enough problems on my plate,” he lamented, “now I can’t even enjoy those few relaxing moments of my day when I eat out without worrying whether the spoon and fork will make me sick! Darn it!”
When asked whether HE was in favor of the proposed legislation, one NJ restaurant owner told reporters on Monday: “Oh sure, I’m a big fan of the bill! Why wouldn’t I be a big fan of the legislation?! It forces me into early retirement!”
“Bon appetit! I’m out of here!” he added. “I’m moving to Florida!”
This state is for the birds using plastic utensils help prevent GERMS