Colorado Democrats Want To Ban Restaurants From Putting Napkins In Your Delivery Order

Two Colorado Democrats have proposed legislation that would crack down on restaurants’ abilities to provide complimentary napkins, utensils and condiments to customers, in the name of protecting the environment.

Bill SB26-146 would ban “a retail food establishment or third-party food delivery service from providing single-use food serviceware to a customer” unless the customer requested or confirms he or she wanted it, according to the bill’s text. Democratic Colorado State Sen. Lisa Cutter and Democratic Colorado State Rep. Meg Froelich introduced the legislation on March 24 and, if passed, will go into effect at the start of 2027.

The bill defines “single-use serviceware” as an item that “a retail food establishment or third-party food delivery service provides to a customer to assist the customer in food … designed to be used once and then discarded,” per its text. The definition explicitly includes napkins, utensils, condiments and straws — among other non-food items.

The bill’s text purports that customers “are increasingly frustrated with the amount of single-use items they receive with food-service orders,” adding that most of these items “are not recyclable or compostable, yet they are commonly placed in recycling and compost streams, becoming contaminants.”

“A statewide requirement for retail food establishments to ask before providing single-use food serviceware, including single-use condiments, will reduce the amount of unwanted items provided to customers, reduce plastic waste, and save food retailers hundreds or thousands of dollars per year,” Cutter and Froelich’s bill goes on to claim.

Specifically, Cutter and Froelich’s legislation would expand Colorado’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, a lawbanning establishments from providing plastic bags passed by the Democratic-dominated state in 2021, which went into