Hold the sporks! We don’t need plastic utensils cluttering our junk drawers — or our planet

How can such little things be so annoying?

All those plastic utensils — sometimes wrapped in cellophane or nested inside rolled-up white napkins — automatically added to our to-go bags when we order takeout, whether we want them or not.

Sure, they’re indispensable if we’re eating in our cars or maybe going back to the office — if we still have an office.

But chances are we’re taking the food home, where we have plenty of “real” knives and forks that hold up much better than flimsy plastic.

So, the disposable ones typically get chucked into a drawer where they accumulate, or worse, wind up in the recycle bin or the garbage.

Now multiply that by all the households in California, and we’re talking about a big heap of plastic utensils and napkins that are discarded, unused. What a waste.

But there is an easy fix.

This week, the city of Los Angeles began prohibiting larger restaurants — ones with more than 26 employees — from automatically including plastic utensils and napkins with every takeout order. Instead, customers must request them.

Good idea. That could save the restaurants a little dough and prevent some of that dreaded plastic waste from winding up where it shouldn’t — like our streets, parks, beaches and oceans.

It’s hard to imagine a downside, though one restaurant owner told the Los Angeles Times the new rule could result in unhappy customers.

We can see that. It’s hard to turn a bowl of chili or a plate of steaming enchiladas into finger food.

But here’s an idea: How about posting signs reminding folks to ask for any napkins or utensils they may need? Problem solved.

For now, Los Angeles and a few other cities with similar regulations are outliers, but soon, all of California will be covered.

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring all restaurants to provide “foodware accessories and condiments” only upon request. Cities and counties must designate an agency to enforce the rule by June 1, 2022.

After that, first and second-time offenders will get a notice of violation; repeat offenders will face a fine of $25 per day, not to exceed an annual total of $300.

Third-party food delivery platforms such as DoorDash will be required to list the availability of single-use items and only provide those items when requested.

This is not nanny state-ism. It is common sense.

Since the start of COVID, reliance on takeout has skyrocketed. According to MarketWatch, business has more than doubled for food delivery apps.

And we’ve all seen the trash containers in public places overflowing with paper plates, fast-food bags and coffee cups.

Adding products to the waste stream that consumers don’t want and aren’t even using is beyond ridiculous.

There will inevitably be complaints about government overreach — one Republican lawmaker included the statewide regulation on a list of Top Ten Bad Bills — just as there were when single-use plastic bags were banned and when restaurants were no longer allowed to hand out straws willy-nilly.

But we’ll get used to it. And we’ll have a lot more space in our junk drawers.

This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 8:10 AM.