Texas Health and Safety Code section 361.0961 and the 2018 Laredo Supreme Court decision preempt city and county regulation of single-use packaging, which restaurant lawyers extend to plastic straws. Harris County has no straw ordinance, and no upon-request rule applies countywide.
Texas does not restrict plastic straws, and Health and Safety Code 361.0961 as interpreted by City of Laredo v. Laredo Merchants Association (2018) preempts local regulation of single-use food-service items. Harris County has never enacted an upon-request straw rule or paper-only mandate. Restaurants in Houston, Pasadena, Baytown, Sugar Land, and unincorporated Harris County freely provide plastic straws by default. Some chains, including Starbucks and McDonald, voluntarily switched to paper or strawless lids countywide. Harris County Public Health nutrition outreach promotes voluntary reduction. Federal accessibility rules under the ADA require restaurants to offer flexible plastic straws to disabled customers if any straw alternative is offered.
Harris County imposes no penalty on plastic straw distribution because no ordinance exists and the county is preempted from creating one. ADA accessibility violations under federal law could carry civil penalties up to seventy-five thousand dollars for first offenses.
See how Baytown's plastic straw rules rules stack up against other locations.
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