Buffalo, NY Single-Use Items: Plastic Straw Rules (2026)

Section 378-6 sits alone as Article III, Drinking Straws, of Chapter 378, Sanitation, and is derived from Sec. 133 of Chapter XXV of the City's 1974 Charter and Ordinances, making it one of the older provisions still on the books. It shares the chapter with Article I's toilet-facility rules and Article II's ban on spitting in public conveyances and buildings, both likewise inherited from the 1974 charter recodification. The straw rule reaches 'any person, firm or corporation conducting a place of business in the City of Buffalo where any person is served with a beverage of any kind for consumption upon said premises,' meaning it covers restaurants, bars, cafes, and any other on-premises beverage service, not just take-out counters.

Unlike newer straws-on-request or plastic-reduction ordinances adopted elsewhere in New York, Buffalo's rule predates the modern plastic-waste movement and instead addresses sanitary handling: straws sitting exposed at a counter or dispenser before being handed to a customer are what the section targets. Chapter 378 carries no straw-specific penalty clause of its own, so an unwrapped-straw violation defaults to the citywide general penalty at § 1-15.