Gotham may have its problems with crime at the moment, but, in one area at least, the city is taking a stand.
New Yorkers with takeout-heavy diets soon won’t have to contend with an overwhelming array of unwanted plastic spoons and chopsticks. Restaurants face new fines for supplying them.
The city on Tuesday recommended fines ranging from $50 to $250 for restaurants, food delivery and third-party courier services that send utensils and other items like soy sauce and ketchup packets to customers who didn’t ask for them, the result of the so-called “Skip the Stuff” bill that was signed into law in February. The rule is aimed at decreasing plastic waste generated by restaurants, according to proposed regulations published Tuesday.
It’s hard to work out what’s worst about this: the petty authoritarianism, the imposition of yet another regulation on (I’d imagine) mainly small businesses, the pointlessness of the new rule, or the frivolity of legislators even thinking about something like this in times such as these.
Still, I note that the determined environmentalists at Bloomberg did their best to talk up the menace being fought by the city. New Yorkers are to be spared an “overwhelming array” of unwanted plastic utensils.
“Overwhelming”? “Array”?
Typically, the food delivery will include a couple of small packets containing the offending utensils (some places allow the customer to reject utensils in advance). Those worried about being overwhelmed can quickly grip the small packets, taking care to minimize trauma by leaving them unopened, and put them in the trash. They are not heavy.