Let New Yorkers Bring Their Own Containers for Takeout
Senator Patricia Fahy (Senate sponsor of S7408), Assemblymember Anna Kelles (Assembly sponsor of A8007), members of the NYS Health Committee, and other legislative allies to introduce and support the full set of proposed amendments
(1).png)
If you are interested in signing on this petition as organization or businesses, please fill out this form.
Update - June 28, 2026: We oppose S7408B / A8007B in its current form. The B amendment introduced in May, 2026 is not a meaningful BYO rights bill. It could make ordinary BYO nearly impossible in practice, even for beverages and leftovers -- and goes further than necessary to do so, imposing requirements that are more restrictive than the updated 2024 FDA Food Code Supplement.
Why we oppose S7408B / A8007B in its current form:
The bill requires food service staff to wash and sanitize customer containers before refilling — making BYO nearly impossible in practice, even for beverages and leftovers
Takeout BYO is optional — businesses can simply refuse
Retail food stores are excluded entirely
The bill is more restrictive than the updated 2024 federal FDA Food Code Supplement
What we're calling for instead:
A clear statewide right to bring your own container for takeout — already law in Illinois and California, and adopted by governments worldwide
Coverage of both restaurants and retail food stores, including grocery delis, hot bars, and salad bars
Food-safety rules that are workable in practice — aligned with or stronger than the 2024 federal FDA Food Code Supplement
Repeal of 1 NYCRR §271‑8.3(e), which currently blocks personal containers in retail food settings
As of June 28, 2026, in addition to over 1,301 individual petition sign-ons, more than 50 organizations and businesses across New York and nationally support the stronger grassroots amendment package, not S7408B / A8007B in its current form. Please scroll down to see the business and organization names listed at the end of this petition.
New Yorkers should have the right to avoid unnecessary single-use food packaging and the health risks that come with it.
Across the state, customers are ready to bring clean reusable containers for takeout food, prepared foods, beverages, grocery deli items, hot bars, and salad bars. Businesses should be allowed and protected when they accept those containers under clear food-safety rules.
But New York still does not provide a clear statewide BYO right for food takeout. In retail food settings such as grocery delis, outdated state rules explicitly block personal containers. In restaurants and food service settings, the law remains unclear and inconsistent, leaving customers and businesses uncertain.
That needs to change.
We are calling on New York lawmakers to adopt strong, clear statewide BYO language that:
Allows customers to bring clean reusable containers for food takeout
Includes both restaurants and retail food stores, including grocery delis, hot bars, and salad bars
Protects businesses from liability when they follow reasonable food-safety rules
Repeals outdated 1 NYCRR §271‑8.3(e), which prohibits personal containers in retail food settings
Makes BYO a real statewide right, not a voluntary patchwork program
Bring New York's policy in line with, and beyond, reuse models already enacted in Illinois and California, instead of establishing one of the weakest and most confusing BYO frameworks in the country
The current bill, S7408B / A8007B, is hardly a win for reuse. The A and B amendments have taken what was an unhelpful but harmless original bill - one that merely confirmed what was already allowed without advancing any new BYO rights - and made it actively worse, creating the appearance of BYO rights while undermining them in practice.
The A amendment was already weak because it failed to create a clear takeout BYO right, left retail food stores out, and preserved a patchwork structure. The B amendment makes the bill worse. It adds a requirement that food service establishment employees clean and sanitize customer containers before refilling. That requirement applies not only to takeout food, but also to beverages and leftovers.
This means the bill could appear to authorize BYO while making ordinary BYO nearly impossible in practice. A customer bringing a clean reusable cup, jar, bowl, or takeout container should not trigger a requirement that restaurant staff wash and sanitize that container before use. Many restaurants, cafes, food trucks, and takeout counters will not have the time, equipment, staffing, or workflow to do that for every customer-provided container.
The B amendment is also more restrictive than the 2024 FDA Food Code Supplement. The federal supplement recognizes consumer-owned reusable containers and allows containers to be refilled by either a food employee or the consumer when food-safety conditions are met. It provides a flexible food-safety framework based on appropriate containers, cleaning and sanitizing standards, visual inspection, and contamination-free transfer. S7408B / A8007B goes beyond that framework by requiring food service establishment employees to clean and sanitize customer containers before refilling. That is not a practical BYO rights framework. It is a barrier.
Our grassroots work on this bill began in 2022. Since April 2025, New Yorkers, organizations, and businesses have been petitioning, calling, writing, and urging legislative offices to adopt stronger language. We provided specific amendment language. But the amendment now moving in the legislature (S7408B / A8007B) still does not reflect the central grassroots request: a clear statewide right to bring your own container for takeout.
The proposed amendments were developed by Zero Waste Ithaca (ZWI) and allied grassroots organizations after more than four years of engagement with legislative offices that did not result in the stronger amendment New Yorkers need. The result is now worse than simply “not strong enough.” S7408B / A8007B risks locking New York into a weak, burdensome, and confusing framework that can be cited as environmental progress while leaving real BYO rights out of reach.
A bill that claims to support reuse while making ordinary BYO nearly impossible is not a win. It is reuse greenwashing.
The current amendment does not create a clear right to bring your own container for takeout. Instead, it makes takeout BYO optional for businesses, excludes retail food stores, adds a staff-washing requirement that could make BYO nearly impossible in practice—not just for takeout food, but even for beverages and leftovers—and leaves too much to later rulemaking and inconsistent implementation.
A voluntary opt-in program is not a right.
The B amendment does not even protect takeout BYO. It says food service establishments “may” serve takeout food in a customer container “at their discretion.” That means a business can simply choose not to participate. A large corporate chain like McDonalds and Starbucks could adopt a systemwide no-BYO-takeout policy, and that would not violate the bill. Nothing in the statute prevents it.
We did not ask for a bill that lets businesses simply choose whether to participate. We asked for clear statewide language saying that businesses shall not refuse clean customer-provided containers solely because they are customer-provided, as long as reasonable food-safety conditions are met.
We also did not ask for a bill that requires food service establishment employees to wash and sanitize customer containers before refilling them. That approach turns a simple reuse practice into an operational burden and could make BYO impossible in practical terms for the very businesses and customers this bill claims to help.
New Yorkers need more than green branding. We need a law that actually changes what customers and businesses are allowed to do in practice. A bill that appears to authorize BYO while leaving takeout optional, excluding retail food stores, and requiring staff to wash and sanitize customer containers before refilling is not meaningful reform. It risks becoming a greenwashed barrier to reuse.
Microplastics, PFAS, and other hazardous chemicals in single-use containers threaten the health of New Yorkers, especially when packaging is exposed to heat, grease, or acidity. A growing body of scientific research shows the risks posed by microplastics, PFAS, and other chemicals commonly found in single-use containers. BYO practice is a simple, safe, and cost-free solution for consumers, supported by governments around the world.
Since 2021, our independent, grassroots organizations based in communities across New York have engaged in good-faith dialogue with legislative staff and provided policy language grounded in health, environmental, and food-safety evidence. But the current bill still fails to address the core structural problems we raised. Instead of creating a clear statewide BYO right, S7408B / A8007B leaves takeout discretionary, excludes retail food stores, and adds staff-washing requirements that could make ordinary BYO nearly impossible in practice. We are now calling publicly for lawmakers to oppose the bill in its current form and replace it with a real statewide BYO rights amendment.
Senator Fahy, Assemblymember Kelles, and members of the Assembly Health Committee should not present S7408B / A8007B as a reuse victory unless it is fixed. In its current form, this bill leaves takeout optional, excludes retail food stores, and makes ordinary BYO nearly impossible through staff-washing requirements. Calling that a BYO rights bill would be greenwashing, not environmental leadership.
Please also read our op-ed on Albany's Times Union (September 16, 2025) and Adirondack Daily Enterprise (October 25, 2025).
See answers to common questions here.
Read more about our calls for proper amendments on Zero Waste Ithaca's website here.
Please sign this petition to urge Senator Patricia Fahy, Assemblymember Anna Kelles, members of the New York State Health Committee, and other legislative allies to oppose S7408B / A8007B in its current form and replace the weak amendment language with a real statewide BYO right.
Lead Organizers
National / Global Organizations
American Environmental Health Studies Project
The Center for Oil & Gas Organizing
GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives)
Local/Regional/Statewide Organizations
Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (PA)
Between the Waters (Dayton, OH)
Beyond Plastics Lower Westchester (NY)
Broward Clean Air (Southwest Ranches, FL)
BYOC Refillery (Dryden, NY - in development, community interest survey underway)
Cayuga Climate Action (Auburn, NY)
Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now! (CLEAN) (Ithaca, NY)
Clean Air Action Network of Glen Falls (Glen Falls, NY)
Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena-Coeymans (New Baltimore, Albany County, NY)
Climate Crisis Working Group of Moore County (NC)
Defend Our Health (Portland, ME)
Extinction Rebellion Ithaca (NY)
Finger Lakes Justice Partnership (Penn Yan, NY)
FLX Craft Beverage Environmental Coalition (Geneva, NY)
Friendship Donation Network (Ithaca, NY)
Ghent Climate Smart (Ghent, NY)
Grassroots Environmental Education (White Plains, NY)
It's Easy Being Green (New York, NY)
Hudson and Mohawk Rivers Leachate Collaborative (Mid-Hudson Valley, NY)
KingstonCitizens.org (Kingston, NY)
🌿 League of Women Voters of New York State
▶️ League of Women Voters, Cortland County (NY)
▶️ League of Women Voters, Rensselaer County (NY)
▶️ League of Women Voters, Saratoga County (NY)
▶️ League of Women Voters, Schnectady County (NY)
▶️ League of Women Voters, Tompkins County (NY)
Nassau Hiking & Outdoor Club (Elmont, NY)
People for a Healthy Environment (Horseheads, NY)
Seneca Lake Guardian (Watkins Glen, NY)
Southern Tier Reduces (Corning, NY)
Save Inwood Park (New York, NY)
Save the Pine Bush (Albany, NY)
Sustainable Finger Lakes (Ithaca, NY)
Sunrise Ithaca (Ithaca, NY)
Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (Ithaca, NY)
Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (NY)
Waste for Life (Hankins, Sullivan County, NY)
Waterside Tenants Association, Inc. (New York, NY)
Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (Peekskill, NY)
Zero Waste Capital District (Albany, NY)
Black Cat Bulk Goods (New Paltz, NY)
Dish Truck aka Regeneration & Elements in Design, Inc. (Ithaca, NY)
Evergreen Ithaca (NY)
Forty Weight Coffee Roasters - Cafe (Ithaca, NY)
Hawthorne Valley Farm Store (Ghent, NY)
Ithaca Farmers Market (Ithaca, NY)
JSA Sustainable Properties (Clermont, NY)
Rosie's Cafe and Parlor (Ithaca, NY)
Strategy Zero Waste Solutions, LLC (MT)
Styld N EMRGD (Schenectady, NY)
Sustainable Rentals LLC (Rhinebeck, NY)
Co-ops
Chatham Real Food Co-op (Chatham, NY)
Honest Weight Co-op (Albany, NY)
Sponsored by
.png)
Additional Sponsors
To:
Senator Patricia Fahy (Senate sponsor of S7408), Assemblymember Anna Kelles (Assembly sponsor of A8007), members of the NYS Health Committee, and other legislative allies to introduce and support the full set of proposed amendments
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Senator Patricia Fahy, Assemblymember Anna Kelles, members of the New York State Health Committee, and other legislative allies,
I am writing to urge you to stop advancing any weak amendment that falls short of real statewide BYO rights and to adopt the full set of amendments proposed by Zero Waste Ithaca and our partners in the BYO-US Reduces network.
These amendments would:
* Establish takeout BYO as a clear statewide right, requiring food service establishments to accept clean customer-provided containers for takeout orders under defined safety conditions
* Protect businesses from liability when accepting reusable containers in compliance with the law
* Repeal outdated 1 NYCRR § 271-8.3(e), which restricts BYO in grocery store delis, salad bars, and other retail food settings
* Bring New York policy in line with stronger models already enacted elsewhere and avoid locking in one of the weakest BYO frameworks in the country
These changes are critical for public health, waste reduction, and consumer freedom. A growing body of research shows that single-use foodware, including items marketed as compostable, can introduce PFAS, microplastics, and other hazardous chemicals into food, especially under conditions involving heat, grease, or acidity. BYO systems are practical, low-cost, and already functioning in other jurisdictions.
As a New Yorker concerned about public health, waste reduction, and climate, I urge you to:
* Reject any amendment that preserves patchwork rights, excludes retail food stores, or leaves takeout BYO subject to broad discretion
* Adopt the full grassroots amendment package without weakening its intent or scope
* Advance a policy rooted in science, clarity, equity, and real statewide access
New Yorkers need more than symbolic reform. We need a law that actually changes what people and businesses are allowed to do in practice.
Thank you for your attention to this issue. I urge you to take this opportunity to support a meaningful, usable statewide BYO framework.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Town or Zip Code]