What's happening
This bill prohibits hotels in New York from providing guests with small plastic bottles of personal care products, with phased implementation based on hotel size.
Why it matters
Direct impact on single-use plastic waste. By banning small, non-reusable plastic bottles for personal care products in hotels, this law targets a specific and widespread source of plastic waste, potentially reducing the volume of single-use plastics entering landfills and the environment across New York State.
Industry adaptation and phased compliance. Larger hotels (50+ rooms) must comply a year earlier than smaller ones, which gives businesses time to adjust operations, find alternatives (like bulk dispensers or larger refillable bottles), and manage inventory and supplier contracts.
Uniform statewide standard, avoiding patchwork regulation. The law preempts local governments from enacting their own rules on this issue, ensuring that hotels throughout the state operate under the same requirements and simplifying compliance, especially for chain hotels.
Enforcement and environmental funding. The bill establishes a warning system and monetary penalties for violations, with collected fines directed to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund—potentially providing additional resources for broader environmental initiatives.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Ban Hotel Plastic Toiletries
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Ordered to third reading rules cal.307
- Substituted for A7662B
- Referred to codes
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 42–18
- Ordered to third reading cal.885
- Print number 5282b
- Amend (t) and recommit to rules
- Reported and committed to rules
- Referred to environmental conservation
- Print number 5282a
- Amend and recommit to environmental conservation
Show 1 earlier action
- Referred to environmental conservation
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Ban Hotel Plastic Toiletries
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Steven Englebright
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5282--B
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 23, 2019
Introduced by Sens. KAMINSKY, ADDABBO, CARLUCCI, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, KAPLAN, KRUEGER, LIU, MAY, METZGER, SERRANO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation -- committee discharged, bill… Show allHide
Introduced by Sens. KAMINSKY, ADDABBO, CARLUCCI, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, KAPLAN, KRUEGER, LIU, MAY, METZGER, SERRANO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the Committee on Environmental Conservation in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- reported favorably from said committee and committed to the Committee on Rules -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law and the state finance law, in relation to restricting hotels from making available to hotel guests small plastic bottle hospitality personal care products
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Article 27 of the environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new title 31 to read as follows:
TITLE 31
SMALL PLASTIC BOTTLE HOSPITALITY PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT RESTRICTIONS Section 27-3101. Definitions.
27-3103. Small plastic bottle hospitality personal care
products.
27-3105. Violations.
27-3107. Preemption of local law. § 27-3101. Definitions.
As used in this title:
1. "Hotel" means a building or portion of a building which is regularly used and kept open as such for the lodging of guests. Hotel includes an apartment hotel, a motel or a boarding house, whether or not meals are served.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11287-06-0
S. 5282--B 2
2. "Hospitality personal care product" means a product provided by a hotel and intended to be applied to or used on the human body or any part thereof for cleansing, conditioning, or moisturizing. Hospitality personal care product includes, but is not limited to, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and liquid soap.
3. "Small plastic bottle" means a plastic container with less than a twelve ounce capacity that is intended to be non-reusable by the end user. § 27-3103. Small plastic bottle hospitality personal care products.
Effective January first, two thousand twenty-three for all hotels with fifty rooms or more and January first, two thousand twenty-four for all hotels with less than fifty rooms, a hotel shall not provide any small plastic bottle containing a hospitality personal care product. § 27-3105. Violations.
1. A hotel that violates a provision of this title shall receive a warning notice for the first such violation, detailing the hotel's requirement to correct the violation within thirty days from the date the notice is sent. A hotel shall be liable to the state for a civil penalty of two hundred fifty dollars for the first violation after receiving a warning and failing to correct the violation within thirty days and five hundred dollars for any subsequent violation in the same calendar year. A hearing or opportunity to be heard shall be provided prior to the assessment of any civil penalty.
2. The department is hereby authorized to enforce the provisions of this title and all monies collected shall be deposited to the credit of the environmental protection fund established pursuant to section ninety-two-s of the state finance law. § 27-3107. Preemption of local law.
Jurisdiction in all matters pertaining to restrictions on the provision of small plastic bottle hospitality personal care products is vested exclusively in the state.
§ 2. Subdivision 3 of section 92-s of the state finance law, as amended by section 3 of part PP of chapter 58 of the laws of 2020, is amended to read as follows:
3. Such fund shall consist of the amount of revenue collected within the state from the amount of revenue, interest and penalties deposited pursuant to section fourteen hundred twenty-one of the tax law, the amount of fees and penalties received from easements or leases pursuant to subdivision fourteen of section seventy-five of the public lands law and the money received as annual service charges pursuant to section four hundred four-n of the vehicle and traffic law, all moneys required to be deposited therein from the contingency reserve fund pursuant to section two hundred ninety-four of chapter fifty-seven of the laws of nineteen hundred ninety-three, all moneys required to be deposited pursuant to section thirteen of chapter six hundred ten of the laws of nineteen hundred ninety-three, repayments of loans made pursuant to section 54-0511 of the environmental conservation law, all moneys to be deposited from the Northville settlement pursuant to section one hundred twenty-four of chapter three hundred nine of the laws of nineteen hundred ninety-six, provided however, that such moneys shall only be used for the cost of the purchase of private lands in the core area of the central Suffolk pine barrens pursuant to a consent order with the Northville industries signed on October thirteenth, nineteen hundred ninety-four and the related resource restoration and replacement plan, the amount of penalties required to be deposited therein by section 71-2724 of the environmental conservation law, all moneys required to be
S. 5282--B 3
deposited pursuant to article thirty-three of the environmental conservation law, all fees collected pursuant to subdivision eight of section 70-0117 of the environmental conservation law, all moneys collected pursuant to title thirty-three of article fifteen of the environmental conservation law, beginning with the fiscal year commencing on April first, two thousand thirteen, nineteen million dollars, and all fiscal years thereafter, twenty-three million dollars plus all funds received by the state each fiscal year in excess of the greater of the amount received from April first, two thousand twelve through March thirtyfirst, two thousand thirteen or one hundred twenty-two million two hundred thousand dollars, from the payments collected pursuant to subdivision four of section 27-1012 of the environmental conservation law and all funds collected pursuant to section 27-1015 of the environmental conservation law, all moneys required to be deposited pursuant to sections 27-2805 and 27-2807 of the environmental conservation law, all moneys collected pursuant to section 71-2730 of the environmental conservation law, all moneys required to be deposited pursuant to section 27-3105 of the environmental conservation law, and all other moneys credited or transferred thereto from any other fund or source pursuant to law. All such revenue shall be initially deposited into the environmental protection fund, for application as provided in subdivision five of this section.
§ 3. This act shall take effect January 1, 2023.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the environmental conservation law and the state finance law, in relation to restricting hotels from making available to hotel guests small plastic bottle hospitality personal care products
Purpose
This bill would reduce plastic pollution by restricting hotels from providing certain small bottles used for hospitality personal care products.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of this bill would add a new section 27-3001 to the environ- mental conservation law (ECL) to prohibit hotels from providing small hospitality bottles used for personal care products like shampoo, condi- tioner, lotion, and liquid soap. The requirement will be phased in over 2023 and 2024 for both larger and smaller hotels.
Section 2 of this bill amends state finance law describing all funds collected from violations would be deposited into the environmental protection fund.
Section 3 of this bill describes preemption.
Section 4 of this bill is the effective date.
Justification
In 2017, the world produced 348 million tons of plastic. Of that, 40 percent was used to produce single-use plastic products. Additionally, scientists predict over 8 million metric tons of the plastic produced fails to be recycled and ends up in our oceans every year. With such a global epidemic at hand, it is apparent consumers and corporations alike need to make an effort to use more sustainable alternatives.
One step that New York can take to reduce plastic waste is to prohibit hotels from providing single-use small plastic bottles to customers. These small bottles are both unnecessary and wasteful, especially in the light of viable alternatives existing in the form of dispensers. Dispensers are also proven to be more cost effective for hotels, along with being less wasteful. Marriott International has already taken steps to reduce plastic waste by replacing small toiletry bottles in their guest bathrooms in select hotels with in-shower dispensers instead. Marriott expects this will help eliminate more than 35 million small plastic toiletry bottles annually and will save approximately 23,000 plastic bottles from being discarded per each 140-room hotel. By restricting hotels from providing these small bottles used for personal care products, the state will take another important step in combating single use plastic pollution.
Legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications
None to the state.
Effective date
This bill shall take effect January 1 2023
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.