Every takeout order comes with a familiar ritual: a fistful of napkins, a handful of plastic forks and three ketchup packets nobody asked for. A national campaign called Skip the Stuff wants to flip that default, requiring restaurants and delivery apps to ask customers before adding single-use serviceware to an order rather than including it automatically.
New York City adopted the policy in 2023. New Jersey towns including Red Bank have followed with local ordinances, and California passed a statewide version in 2022. This year, Colorado came close to following suit. Senate Bill 26-146, dubbed “Restrict Single-Use Food Serviceware Distribution,” passed both chambers of the state legislature before Gov. Jared Polis vetoed it June 2. Now with a new governor set to take office in 2027, advocates in Fort Collins are watching to see whether the policy resurfaces at the state level, or whether cities will have to act on their own.
SB26-146 would have required restaurants and third-party delivery services to withhold single-use utensils, napkins, straws, stirrers, lids, condiments and similar items unless a customer requested them or confirmed they wanted them when placing an order…