A Colorado bill would prevent restaurants from giving customers singe-use plastic items like utensils and condiment packets unless the person explicitly asks for them.

Bill sponsor Senator Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat, said Senate Bill 26-146 is an effort to reduce waste and litter, and would also save restaurants money because they would purchase fewer plastic utensils, napkins, straws and condiment packets in the long run. When people get plastic forks by default in their takeout order, she said, they often gets stuffed in a drawer at home or immediately thrown out.

“It’s really easy for us to continue consuming and littering without thinking about it,” Cutter told lawmakers during the bill’s first committee hearing on Thursday. “That’s just the way our society is set up. That’s where we live. This helps us think about our usage and encourages us to be good stewards of our environment and of our resources.”

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The bill passed out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a 4-3 vote.

It builds on the law passed in 2021 that phased out the use of single-use plastic bags, which was also spearheaded by Cutter. This time, she worked with two high school students on this so-called “Skip the Stuff” bill.

“Single-use food service items like these are the enemy of the beautiful environment that we are so lucky to (live in). They’ll be thrown away and sit in the landfills of Colorado and clutter our local parks for decades to come — all for the convenience that the customer never even requested,” said Dominick Redmond, a sophomore at Cherry Creek High School who worked with fellow sophomore Erica Choi on the bill.

Denver has had a similar ordinance since 2022, where restaurants can provide disposable service ware only upon request. Choi said that in her conversations with Denver restaurant owners, she heard that it saved them money and reduced waste.

Research has shown that between 40% and 50% of plastic products are made for single-use consumption, and the amount that ends up in landfills grows each year. In 2018, about 27 million tons of plastic ended up in landfills in the United States, where those items can take 1,000 years to decompose. Microplastics contaminate ecosystems and waterways, and have even been found inside the human body.

“I’ve participated in more litter cleanups than I can count,” said Ryan Call, the policy specialist at Boulder-based Eco-Cycle. “The items I clean up over and over again are mostly the ones addressed in this bill. The single-use items might be small, but they really add up in multiple ways — as litter, as unused items in the landfill and as costs for restaurants that automatically distribute them.”

Restaurants at airports and hotels, hospital cafeterias and schools would be exempt from the bill, as would meals given to people experiencing homelessness and other service-related meals. In delivery apps like Uber Eats, customers would be able to select which single-use items they want.

If passed, the law would go into effect in 2027. Local counties could fine businesses $500 on the second violation and $1,000 on the third violation, consistent with the plastic bag ban.

Sharon Thompson, the mayor of Fountain, told lawmakers they should focus on affordability instead of “napkin and ketchup fines.”

“If an individual community is overwhelmingly concerned with napkins and ketchup being served at their businesses, then the local government can decide how to handle their forks and taco sauces, not the state,” she said.

The bill now heads to the entire Senate for consideration.