Skip The Stuff for Food Establishment Operators

On April 14th, 2025, the Wellesley Town Meeting approved a Board of Health bylaw (34.5D) known as “Skip The Stuff”. The purpose of “Skip The Stuff” is to reduce the waste created by single-use articles such as plastic utensils and single-serving packaged condiments. This bylaw is effective January 1, 2026, requiring all Food Service Establishments (FSEs) to only provide single-use articles upon customer request or at a self-service counter. This ordinance is intended to 1) reduce the amount of waste generated by single-use articles, 2) change customer habits, and 3) help reduce unnecessary costs to FSEs.

Official Letter from the Board of Health to Food Service Establishments

How will this work?

Beginning January 1, 2026 all food service establishments in Wellesley should adhere to the following:

Provide single-use service articles (including condiments) only upon request.
Inform customers when they order (whether online, over the phone, or in-person) that you can only provide single-use articles upon request or at a self-service counter.
Single-use articles may not be bundled (ex: fork, spoon, knife, napkin, salt & pepper in one package).
Do not include a single-use article with prepared food when the customer does not request it or if the online food ordering platform does not include a feature for customers to indicate their preference for inclusion of single-use articles.
Place signage in the establishment or at the point of order informing customers that single-use items will only be provided upon request. This includes online ordering platforms. The Health Department has signage and window clings available for customer and back-of-house information. See below.

"Single-use service articles” means all types of single-use items provided including but not limited to utensils, tongs, chopsticks, napkins, condiment cups and packages, straws, stirrers, splash sticks, cocktail sticks, and toothpicks, cup lids, cup sleeves, cup trays, and food trays designed for a single-use for prepared foods.

"Single-Use” means designed to be used once and then discarded, and not designed for repeated use and sanitizing.

“Utensil” includes forks, spoons, knives, sporks, chopsticks, or other instruments used to serve food or to eat food.

Why is this important?

In the U.S., 561 billion disposable food service items are used every year, resulting in 4.9 million tons of waste. Americans use more than 36 billion utensils and as much as 142 billion straws each year. Most restaurants provide these accessories for take-out meals even if the customer doesn’t want or need them.

Single-use accessories for food service are frequently provided to customers that don’t need them, resulting in unnecessary waste that is costly for local governments to manage and unnecessary cost to food service operators.

The vast majority of these single-use accessory items are problematic in the waste stream. They are not recyclable. Even when manufactured from recyclable materials, food packaging is usually too dirty to be recycled. Utensils and straws are contaminants in many recycling systems. Plant-based foodware and utensils are often considered contaminants in commercial compost facilities. Bio-plastics don’t degrade quickly enough and paper and other fibers dilute the quality of compost.

It is in the interest of the health, safety and welfare of all who live, work, and do business in the Wellesley that the amount of litter on public streets, parks and in other public places be reduced and the amount of single-use accessory waste be reduced.

What happens if I am not in compliance by January 1st?

Beginning January 1st, failure to comply will result in the following: first-third offenses will result in a written warning; the fourth offense will result in a $50 fine; and the fifth and subsequent offenses will result in a $100 fine.

Any food service establishment may seek a limited delay in implementation of this bylaw by filing a request in writing with the Director of Public Health. Please send written letters of request to the Director of Public Health, Leonard Izzo, at the following address: Wellesley Health Department, 90 Washington St., Wellesley MA 02481. Written letters of request can also be emailed as an attachment to lizzo@wellesleyma.gov. Letters must state reasons why this bylaw cannot be implemented by January 1, 2026.