Bill Text: NY S08264 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides for certain restrictions on single-use plastic cutlery in restaurants.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-07 - REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION [S08264 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S08264-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8264

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 7, 2022
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  MAY  --  read  twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed 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 cutlery 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 32 to read as follows:

     3                                  TITLE 32
     4                        PLASTIC CUTLERY RESTRICTIONS
     5  Section 27-3201. Definitions.
     6          27-3203. Single-use plastic cutlery.
     7          27-3205. Enforcement.
     8  § 27-3201. 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  § 27-3203. Single-use plastic cutlery.
    14    1.  (a)  Restaurants  shall only provide single-use plastic cutlery 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.
    19    2. (a) Nothing in  this  section  shall  preclude  a  restaurant  from
    20  providing  customers  with  non-plastic  cutlery  as  an  alternative to
    21  single-use plastic cutlery, including, but not limited to, cutlery  made
    22  from metal, sugar cane, bamboo, wood or compostable materials.
    23    (b)  Restaurants  that  provide  compostable  cutlery to customers are
    24  required to have  access  to  curbside  collection  of  food  waste  for
    25  composting.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD08882-01-1
        S. 8264                             2

     1    3.  Single-use  plastic  cutlery provided by a restaurant, pursuant to
     2  subdivision one of this section, shall not be  individually  wrapped  in
     3  plastic.
     4  § 27-3205. Enforcement.
     5    Every  local  department  of  health shall ensure compliance with this
     6  title as part of an inspection of a food place pursuant to section thir-
     7  teen hundred fifty-one of the public health law, the provisions  of  the
     8  sanitary  code  and  provisions of local ordinances or regulations.  Any
     9  establishment that violates this title  shall  be  liable  for  a  civil
    10  penalty  in  the  amount of two hundred dollars for the first violation,
    11  three hundred dollars for the second violation committed on a  different
    12  day  within  a period of twelve months, and five hundred dollars for the
    13  third and each subsequent violation committed on different days within a
    14  period of twelve months, except that  the  local  department  of  health
    15  shall  not  issue  a  notice of violation, but shall issue a warning and
    16  provide information on compliance with such section, for  any  violation
    17  that occurs within one year of the effective date of this section.
    18    §  2. The general business law is amended by adding a new section 399-
    19  tt to read as follows:
    20    § 399-tt. Single-use plastic cutlery. Restaurants shall  only  provide
    21  single-use  plastic  cutlery  to customers where explicitly requested by
    22  the customer pursuant to title thirty-two of article twenty-seven of the
    23  environmental conservation law.
    24    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
    25  it shall have become a law.