If you want a single-use plastic straw in New Jersey, you’ll have to ask for one – wobm.com

You go to a restaurant, order a drink and then it comes to your table but without a straw.

Come November 4, it’ll be like that just about everywhere as the only way you’ll get a single-use plastic straw is if you ask for one.

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and NJ Business Action Center announced that starting next Thursday food-service businesses may only provide such straws upon customer request.

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To clarify, the NJDEP said that food-service businesses means that all restaurants, convenience stores and fast-food businesses must follow the guidelines and educate their employees and customers about the new restrictions.

You will still be able to buy packages of straws and pre-packaged drinks with a straw, like a juice box.

This is a concept that’s been in the works for some time after a state law was enacted last year which bans the sale or provision of single-use plastic carryout bags from stores and food-service businesses as well as single-use paper carryout bags from grocery stores larger than or equal to 2,500 square feet and use of polystyrene foam food-service products, according to the NJ-DEP, but these provisions of the law take effect on May 4, 2022.

“When we move beyond single-use plastics, we can reduce our reliance on the fossil fuels that create plastic, remove a source of litter from our communities, and protect wild and marine life from the harm of ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic products,” DEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said in a statement.