Not Forking Around
When I was in high school, rapscallions would sometimes partake in throwing eggs or tomatoes at cars after the homecoming football game. Because of the inherent danger of this activity and the very expensive damage it could cause, the authorities came down hard on any perpetrators they would find.
To avoid severe punishment, these miscreants then turned to throwing toilet paper into the trees in the yards of their enemies. Soon, law enforcement started to crack down on this as well.
So, on the morning of the homecoming game my senior year, the rabblerousers turned to “sporking.” This consisted of jamming plastic sporks into the ground at a specific angle around the entire school. When someone would try to extricate the utensil, the handle would invariably snap off, leaving the spoon-with-tines portion embedded in the earth.
While a seemingly harmless prank, the inconvenient truth about sporking is that there are probably still hundreds of non-biodegradable plastic spork heads still buried on campus.
Because of the dangers plastic utensils pose to our environment, the Garden State has taken action to curb their use.
Earlier this year, New Jersey narrowly adopted a bill that would ban on-site restaurants from providing single-use utensils to their customers unless they explicitly request them. The legislation, which was sponsored by Democratic Senator Bob Smith, who chairs the body’s environment committee, got the required 21 votes needed to be approved by the Senate, with 15 senators opposing. It passed the Assembly 43-24.
“We have the single-use bags under control in New Jersey. Literally billions of bags are being taken out of the environment,” Smith said. “I’m hoping with the utensil bill that we’ll greatly reduce the amount of plastics that are out in the environment.”
If signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy, the bill would require restaurants to provide reusable, washable utensils for customers who are eating their meals on site, instead of those made of plastic. The law would also prohibit restaurants from providing single-use condiments, such as ketchup packets, to on-site customers. These condiments may be provided to takeout customers, but only if they are specifically requested.
In addition to restaurants, the law would cover food trucks, convenience stores, entertainment and sports venues, and more. However, schools, hospitals, healthcare and correctional facilities would be exempt from the legislation, as would prepackaged food items that come with a disposable utensil or single-use condiments.
The Department of Environmental Protection would also be mandated under the bill to develop a campaign to “educate citizens of the State on the financial and environmental benefits [of banning single-use utensils and condiments], and to encourage responsible use… not to take more items than needed from a self-serve condiment station or utensil dispenser.”
If signed, the law would go into effect on August 1, 2026. All food service businesses would then be barred from dispensing packets containing multiple disposable utensils or condiments within 12 months after the bill goes into effect, or August 1, 2027. Businesses that violate the rules would receive a warning for their first offense, a $1,000 fine for the second offense, and a $2,500 fine for each subsequent violation.
Republican Assemblyman John Azzariti opposed the ban, saying it would boost costs for New Jersey businesses and inconvenience consumers. “People by and large do not like the plastic bag ban, and they will not like the limitations on plastic utensils and micromanagement of condiments by this legislation,” he said.
One of my high school classmates liked to steal utensils from the cafeteria, but I wasn’t willing to take the whisk.
Reg P. Wydeven
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