Every year in the United States over 40 billion single use plastic utensils are discarded into the waste stream, most having never been used! They fill our kitchen ‘junk drawers’, cost businesses unnecessary expenses, are too small to be recycled, and are polluting our environment and health. Plastic never biodegrades but breaks into tiny micro and nanoparticles that can leach toxins into the air, land and water making us sick.
Clean Water Action is leading the Skip the Stuff campaign both at the state and municipal level to require single-use cutlery and condiments to be only provided upon request. There were 6 towns that wove cutlery and condiment restrictions into their 2019/2020 bag ban. Between March and December 2024, 10 additional municipalities passed Skip the Stuff ordinances, and 1 passed a resolution. In 2021, the State of California and Oregon passed state Skip the Stuff legislation and New York City passed such an ordinance in January 2023.
Contact your state Senator and Assemblymember today to help New Jersey pass the most comprehensive Skip the Stuff law, applying to both take-out and dine-in! Send a messaging urging NJ legislators to support S3195 and A5157 today.
