Portland Ordinance 190444 (effective March 2022) bars restaurants from providing plastic utensils, condiment packets, napkins, or stirrers unless the customer requests them or they are placed in self-serve dispensers. The rule covers dine-in, takeout, and delivery.
Adopted under PCC 17.103, the single-use accessory ordinance requires restaurants and delivery platforms to make plastic utensils, condiments, stirrers, napkins, and straws available only on customer request or via clearly marked self-serve stations. Online and app orders must offer an explicit opt-in checkbox; default-off is required. The Bureau of Planning & Sustainability administers the rule with progressive enforcement: education, warnings, then civil penalties. Compliance saved an estimated 200 million accessories citywide in the first year. Compostable items still require opt-in, since the rule targets waste reduction broadly, not just plastic.
Defaulting opt-in checkboxes to on, automatically including utensils with takeout, or refusing accommodations after warning letters can result in civil penalties up to five hundred dollars per occurrence administered by Planning and Sustainability.
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