STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________

207--A

2021-2022 Regular Sessions

IN ASSEMBLY

(Prefiled)

January 6, 2021 ___________

Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL, LUPARDO, TAYLOR, GLICK, NIOU, GOTT- FRIED, J. RIVERA, SEAWRIGHT, SIMON, GALEF, BARRETT, BRONSON, STECK, WEPRIN, FAHY, RAMOS, REYES, EPSTEIN, PAULIN, COLTON, JACOBSON, OTIS, McMAHON, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, BURDICK, ZINERMAN, FERNANDEZ, PERRY, ABINAN- TI, HEVESI, BROWN -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. THIELE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Environmental Conservation -- reported and referred to the Committee on Codes -- recommitted to the Committee on Codes in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee

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 33 to read as follows:

3 TITLE 33 4 PLASTIC STRAW AND STIRRER RESTRICTIONS 5 Section 27-3301. Definitions. 6 27-3303. Single-use plastic straws and stirrers. 7 27-3305. Enforcement. 8 § 27-3301. 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 § 27-3303. Single-use plastic straws and stirrers.

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD00359-05-2

A. 207--A 2

1 1. (a) Restaurants may not provide single-use plastic straws unless 2 explicitly requested by the customer. 3 (b) No inquiry into the reason for the request shall be made by a 4 restaurant or any of its employees in carrying out the request author- 5 ized by paragraph (a) of this subdivision. 6 2. Restaurants are prohibited from providing customers with single-use 7 plastic stirrers. 8 3. (a) Nothing in this section shall preclude a restaurant from 9 providing customers with non-plastic straws or stirrers as an alterna- 10 tive to single-use plastic straws and stirrers, including, but not 11 limited to, straws and/or stirrers made from paper, sugar cane, bamboo 12 or compostable materials. 13 (b) Restaurants that provide compostable straws or stirrers to custom- 14 ers are required to have access to curbside collection of food waste for 15 composting. 16 4. Single-use plastic straws provided by a restaurant, pursuant to 17 subdivision one of this section, shall not be individually wrapped in 18 plastic, except for prepackaged individual serving beverages where a 19 plastic straw is included in the packaging. 20 § 27-3305. Enforcement. 21 Every local department of health shall ensure compliance with this 22 title as part of an inspection of a food place pursuant to section thir- 23 teen hundred fifty-one of the public health law, the provisions of the 24 sanitary code and provisions of local ordinances or regulations. Any 25 establishment that violates this title shall be liable for a civil 26 penalty in the amount of two hundred dollars for the first violation, 27 three hundred dollars for the second violation committed on a different 28 day within a period of twelve months, and five hundred dollars for the 29 third and each subsequent violation committed on different days within a 30 period of twelve months, except that the local department of health 31 shall not issue a notice of violation, but shall issue a warning and 32 provide information on compliance with such section, for any violation 33 that occurs within one year of the effective date of this section. 34 § 2. The general business law is amended by adding a new section 399- 35 tt to read as follows: 36 § 399-tt. Single-use plastic straws. Restaurants may only provide 37 single-use plastic straws to customers where explicitly requested by the 38 customer pursuant to title thirty-three of article twenty-seven of the 39 environmental conservation law. 40 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after 41 it shall have become a law.