DELAWARE HOUSE BILL 111
Our Mission at Plastic Free Delaware
HB 111 was introduced on April 8th and assigned to the House Economic Development Committee.
Foodware Accessory Facts
- Plastic straws and stirrers were the 7th most commonly found item on beaches worldwide during the International Coastal Cleanup in 2017.
- The United States uses more than 36 billion disposable utensils a year. Laid end to end, they could wrap around the globe 139 times.
- In the U.S., 561 billion disposable food service items are used every year, resulting in 4.9 million tons of waste.
- Americans use as many as 142 billion straws each year.
- Each year, billions of single-use plastics and paper accessories – utensils, straws, napkins, and condiments – are given to customers who order meals for take-out or delivery and don’t need them. Most take-out and delivery meals go to homes and offices already stocked with these items.
- The vast majority of single-use take-out items and packaging cannot be recycled.
- Even if Delaware had commercial scale composting (which it doesn’t), composting facilities do not want bioplastics, and many don’t accept compostable foodware because of the contamination they cause - both in terms of chemicals like PFAS but also because of confusion around what is acceptable.
- Although compostable and bioplastic packaging and serviceware are touted as being environmentally friendly, they tend to have even greater environmental impacts than their conventional plastic counterparts and Delaware has no commercial scale composting options.
- Consumption of single-use plastics increased by 250-300 % since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a thirty percent increase in waste which is attributed to personal protective equipment (PPE), packaging, and disposable foodware.
- Skip the Stuff policy not only helps the environment, but also saves restaurants money!
- Many other jurisdictions have already passed Skip the Stuff legislation including New York City, Denver, Washington, D.C., Chicago, California, Washington State, and numerous local governments in New Jersey.