A Colorado bill would prevent restaurants from giving customers single-use plastic items like utensils and condiment packets unless the person explicitly asks for them. Bill sponsor Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat, said Senate Bill 26-146 is an effort to reduce waste and litter, and would also save restaurants money because they would purchase fewer plastic utensils, napkins, straws and condiment packets in the long run. When people get plastic forks by default in their takeout order, she said, they often gets stuffed in a drawer at home or immediately thrown out…
— from a Colorado Newsline article by Sara Wilson, April 24, 2026.
Probably, Colorado legislator Lisa Cutter can barely imagine the number of plastic forks and spoons that I have stashed in the back of my silverware drawer. Ditto, little plastic packets of ketchup and soy sauce.
Senator Cutter saw her bill passed out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a 4-3 vote on Friday, and will now be considered by the full Senate. Denver has had a similar ordinance since 2022, where restaurants can provide disposable plastic forks only upon request, which has actually saved them money. And what with all the new tariffs, it will likely save them even more money going forward.
This is not Senator Cutter’s first assault on plastic. In 2021, while the rest of us were dealing with social distancing and mask-wearing, then-Representative Cutter was busy pushing House Bill 21-116, which became a Colorado law and deprived us of single-use plastic bags to carry our groceries and other retail purchases. I have since become adept at carrying multiple food items from the self-check to my car, carefully balanced, without needing a bag, and that’s been a source of pride… an unintended consequence of HB21-116.
At the rate Senator Cutter is getting laws passed, I expect Colorado will outlaw bottled water in the not-too-distant future.
In the case of this plastic fork law, the Senator had help from a couple of sophomores from Cherry Creek High School — Dominick Redmond and Erica Choi — who helped craft and promote the legislation.
I can imagine these kids were hoping to get the bill introduced on Earth Day, April 22. And they nearly made it. Just two days late.
We’re more than two days late getting rid of plastic garbage, however.
In 2018, about 27 million tons of plastic ended up in American landfills, where it will take 1,000 years to decompose. Data suggests we will toss even more plastic in 2026, and of course, it will last eight years longer than the plastic from 2018.
If we had started cutting back on plastic 1,000 years ago, we wouldn’t be in the same fix we’re in now. But better late than never, as my dad always used to say.
The problem isn’t just our overflowing landfills. We are also 1,000 year late in dealing with “microplastics pollution” in our air, water and soil. The people who estimate these kinds of things are predicting that a typical American child growing up today absorbs 500 microplastic particles every day.
One funny thing about this whole problem… “funny” meaning “uncomfortably weird”. Our clothing is increasingly made of plastic — mainly polyester, acrylic, and nylon — as are our automobile tires, and these two items are now contributing 50% of the microplastics our kids are absorbing.
Makes me glad I’m not a kid.
The microplastics are collecting in the oceans, and the people who estimate these kinds of things predict that, at the rate things are going, by 2050 the total weight of plastic in the ocean will outweigh the total weight of fish . (I suspect they are not including whales, because whales are not fish. But still.)
So you might be wondering why I included a picture of little plastic forks planted in someone’s garden?
Someone discovered that planting plastic forks in your garden can discourage animals who might otherwise consume your carefully tended crops.
Animals are not stupid.
They see those plastic forks, and they think, “Microplastics in the soil! No way am I eating from that garden.”
Humans. meanwhile, are stupid.
Think of all the poor gardeners who will be weeding their gardens and then, carelessly, squat down, right on a plastic fork.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.