A Continuing Opinion Feature Looking at Bills That Died in the 153rd General Assembly…But May Rise Again.
“Skip the Stuff” Seems Likely to be Reanimated in New Session
Earlier this month, New Jersey implemented its new Skip the Stuff law, requiring restaurants and other food businesses to provide plastic utensils, condiment packets, plastic straws, and other single-use items only when customers specifically request them.
Many First State lawmakers have been working toward a similar goal.
Sponsored by State Rep. Sophie Phillips (D-Newark, Christiana), House Substitute 2 for House Bill 111 (as amended) was Delaware’s Skip the Stuff proposal. As its designation indicates, the measure went through three incarnations, with two additional amendments, before receiving a House vote.
The bill hit most of the same notes as the New Jersey legislation. It would have prohibited food sellers from automatically including condiment packets, eating utensils, napkins, and beverage stirrers in fulfilled orders. Online food sales would have required a section allowing customers to request such materials. In a bid to get the bill approved, a concession was made via an amendment that would have allowed food sellers to ask customers if they wanted any of these items.
Schools, healthcare facilities, and (somewhat ironically) prisons were exempted from the proposed mandate.
Businesses caught violating the mandate would have received warnings on the first two occasions. A third transgression would have yielded a $100 fine, a fourth would have earned a $400 penalty, and subsequent violations would have incurred a $500 fine. Total fines imposed on any single business could not exceed $1,500 per year.
Advocates framed the legislation as a means of reducing litter and plastic waste that enter local water supplies and the ocean.
While acknowledging that pollution is an ongoing challenge, opponents of the measure say it micromanages small businesses, imposes another needless inconvenience on Delawareans, and degrades customer service and a food vendor’s reputation when inevitable miscommunications occur.
As quoted in a 2025 Delaware Online article, Delaware Restaurant Association President and CEO Carrie Leishman said: “We’re about customer service – we want to do what’s right for them. And if they are unaware of legislation, if they don’t know what’s happening, then it’s really the restaurant that gets the bad Yelp review.”
Delaware and New Jersey are not alone in their “Skip the Stuff” interest. All the cool progressive jurisdictions are doing it. California and Washington State enacted statutes several years ago. Municipalities like New York City, Denver, and Chicago have also implemented local ordinances.
Now effectively dead with the conclusion of the 153rd General Assembly’s legislative session, will the Skip the Stuff proposal be resurrected in the upcoming 154th G.A.? There is a good possibility it will be.
HS 2 for HB 111 cleared the House of Representatives by a vote of 27 to 12 on June 11, along partisan lines. It was then assigned to the Senate Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee, where it spent the final three weeks without a hearing.
The Senate will have new leadership and new membership next year. It seems reasonable that the sponsors of the bill, encouraged by their progress this session, will take another run at increasing your chances of not getting a napkin and ketchup packet in a future fast food order.
