DOVER—A bill filed in Delaware’s state Senate would prohibit food establishments from providing consumers with food or beverages packaged in polystyrene foam containers.

Senate Bill 51 would also ban establishments from providing food or beverages with single-service plastic coffee stirrers, cocktail picks or sandwich picks.

Prime sponsored by Sen. Trey Paradee, D-Dover, the bill was introduced Feb. 17 with co-sponsorship from several Democrats, including each member of Senate Democratic leadership.

If the bill is passed and signed by Gov. John Carney, these restrictions would take effect on July 1, 2025.

Exemptions under the legislation include coolers or ice chests used for the processing or shipping of seafood and containers used to transport or package raw, uncooked or butchered meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, fruits or vegetables.

The prohibition on plastic straws does not apply to patients or residents of hospitals or long-term care facilities, as well as plastic straws attached to pre-packaged goods such as juice boxes.

Fire companies, nonprofit organizations and health-care providers that provide long-term, acute and outpatient services are also exempt from the ban on polystyrene foam food service packaging.

Two previous iterations of the legislation did not pass during the 151st General Assembly. The first did not receive a hearing during the first leg of the legislative session, while the second did not receive a hearing in the House after passing in the Senate during the session’s final leg.

The second iteration passed the Senate by a 13-8 vote with all Republicans opposing the measure. Sen. Paradee told the Delaware State News that, while the attempts were not successful, the second iteration had the votes to pass in the House but was “not allowed to come up for a vote.”

The senator anticipates any vote on the legislation to “go much of the way it did in 2022” in terms of a party line vote, but added that he remains hopeful House lawmakers will have the opportunity to vote on the bill should it come to the floor this session.

For Delaware Restaurant Association CEO and President Carrie Leishman, the organization’s continued opposition to the legislation is a matter of equity.

“It disproportionately affects our smaller ethnic restaurants,” she said. “(The bill) exempts a lot of different organizations that offer a ton of food service to-go and carry out, so, in our opinion, this is a political bill and not an environmental bill.”

Ms. Leishman noted that many Delaware restaurants have moved toward more environmentally friendly to-go containers and as businesses grapple with inflationary times, small businesses are impacted the most. The ban under the legislation would put a strain on family-owned ethnic restaurants that still provide polystyrene containers for their customers, she said.

“A lot of restaurants are listening to their customers by going to recyclable containers and initiatives like straws upon request,” Ms. Leishman said. “With this bill, you're really disproportionately impacting small ethnic restaurants.”

While the legislation currently provides several exemptions, Ms. Leishman said there has not been conversations between her organization and Sen. Paradee about amending the bill to limit its scope to allow small businesses to provide these materials.

Sen. Paradee noted that “an overwhelming amount” of Delaware restaurants have already taken environmentally friendly measures, specifically banning polystyrene containers.

He disagreed with the notion that the legislation would negatively impact minority-owned small businesses and added that Canada; African countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe; Asian Countries like China, Thailand and Taiwan; and the entire European Union have already implemented nationwide policy banning the use of polystyrene materials.

“It's really rare that you see those polystyrene packages anymore. Yes, there are some restaurants out there, but, this legislation is certainly not meant to create any undue burden or discriminate in any way against any type of ethnic restaurants,” Sen. Paradee said.

“I feel very strongly that we, as a coastal state where our number two industry is tourism, we should be setting the example. It’s horrible when you go to the beach in Delaware and there's plastic drinking straws and other trash around.”

“We should be able to step up and do what other countries have already done.”

SB 51 has been assigned to the Senate Environment, Energy and Transportation Committee for consideration.

Staff reporter Joe Edelen can be reached at jedelen@iniusa.org
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