Posted on 10/26/2025 by Kyle
Eagle eyed readers of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise might have spotted a guest essay on BYO Rights from Zero Waste Ithaca founder Yayoi Koizumi and founder of Columbia County Reduces Waste Jill Berman. Here's the article in that publication, and for your convenience here's the full text of the op-ed.
When New Yorkers pick up takeout, they expect dinner — not a dose of PFAS and microplastics. Yet that’s the reality when hot food sits in disposable clamshells, waxy soup cups or plastic deli tubs. Single-use packaging is not just wasteful — it’s a health hazard.
This year, the New York State Legislature has a chance to do something simple and powerful about it. Senator Patricia Fahy and Assemblymember Anna Kelles have introduced the Bring Your Own (BYO) Rights bill (S7408 /A8007). The bill aims to expand the right of customers to use their own clean containers for food. But as written, it has a critical flaw: it mostly repeats what’s already legal, like bringing your own coffee cup. It leaves out the most meaningful change — the right to BYO for restaurant takeout and grocery delis.
That gap matters. New York’s outdated food code still blocks grocery delis and salad bars from filling a customer’s container. Restaurants rightly worry about liability, which is why our proposed amendments explicitly protect businesses when they accept a customer’s clean container. Without this change, countless takeout orders will continue to generate single-use containers, despite safe, commonsense alternatives.
Our organizations — Zero Waste Ithaca and Columbia County Reduces — along with allies across the state, have drafted amendments that would fix the bill. They would (1) allow restaurants and delis to serve takeout in clean customer-provided containers, (2) protect businesses from liability, and (3) repeal the state food code section that blocks BYO at grocery delis.
These are practical, low-cost changes already working in California, Illinois, Oregon and abroad. They would give New Yorkers the same rights others already enjoy.
This isn’t just a technical food-safety issue. It’s about health and climate. Research shows how heat, grease, and acidity leach chemicals from plastic packaging into food. Once discarded, single-use containers add to the microplastics contaminating our air, water, and soil. PFAS — “forever chemicals” — are in everything from drinking water to human bloodstreams. The safest, most effective way to cut this exposure is also the simplest: BYO.
We launched a petition urging legislators to strengthen the bill — already joined by the League of Women Voters of New York State, national environmental groups, and food businesses including GreenStar Co-op and local coffee shops.
The good news is, BYO is already happening. Across New York, volunteers are building grassroots programs to make BYO practical. In Ithaca, Columbia County, the Southern Tier, and New York City, people are handing out BYO stickers, talking to restaurant owners, and educating neighbors. In Albany, groups like Zero Waste Capital District have joined this call. These actions point toward a healthier, more sustainable New York.
At a time when so much in our politics feels paralyzed, this is something ordinary people can do — and legislators can support with the stroke of a pen. BYO is not controversial, costly or complicated.
We’re calling on Senator Fahy and Assemblymember Kelles: Adopt the full set of amendments we’ve submitted. We also call on committee members to back these changes. New York should not settle for a bill that changes nothing. We should lead by giving every New Yorker the right to choose safer, reusable containers for their families.
Grassroots groups have already shown New Yorkers are ready. Now Albany needs to catch up.
A healthier, more sustainable New York is within reach. Let us bring our own.
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Yayoi Koizumi is the founder of Zero Waste Ithaca. Jill Berman is the co-founder of BYO — Columbia County Reduces Waste.