You pull up at a drive-through window or get takeout at your favorite eatery, open up the bag and whammo! Your food is in there, but so is something else—a pile of plastic stuff you didn’t ask for. Extra knives, forks, spoons. You don’t want to throw them out, so they pile up in your car’s storage compartments, your kitchen drawer, or on countertops.
Now, there’s relief in sight.
Following really strong advocacy by Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, Beyond Plastics NJ, and many others in New Jersey, outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy signed “Skip the Stuff” legislation on January 20, 2026.
What this does is phase in requirements that restaurants stop handing out plastic utensils and condiment packets unless customers specifically request them. Make sense? Full-service restaurants with on-site dining must provide reusable washable utensils, and online ordering apps must default to no utensils or condiments unless customers specifically ask for them.
Those are the main provisions, and before they go into effect, the Department of Environmental Protection must run a 180-day public education campaign. The law actually takes effect on the first day of the seventh month after enactment, or by late summer 2026.
It supersedes any local regulations on plastics, and it provides for warnings on a first offense and then escalating penalties for subsequent offenses. Fines will be deposited into the Clean Communities Program Fund for litter cleanup and related efforts.
Advocates drafted and promoted legislation, found sponsors in the Legislature, provided expert testimony at hearings, organized local ordinances that demonstrated feasibility, hosted rallies and lobby days at the State House, and organized public education campaigns. This is how grassroots advocacy works — and succeeds.