City’s plastic-serviceware ban could give way to Council signoff

Atlanta would move from a ban to a Council-approval system for city acquisitions of certain disposable plastics under a proposal endorsed by the Finance/Executive Committee on October 28. Councilmember Alex Wan’s ordinance covers plastic bags, plastic straws and polystyrene items.⁠[1][2]

The key change is in the redline: it strikes the sentence barring city agencies from buying or otherwise acquiring the covered serviceware and replaces it with a requirement for Council approval before any covered contract is awarded, regardless of price. That would create a path to those acquisitions—not merely add another check while leaving the prohibition intact. The change concerns city government acquisitions, not a ban on residents’ shopping.⁠[1]

A separate deletion affects accessibility. Contracts for disposable flexible plastic drinking straws would remain exempt from the section’s requirements. But the proposal removes language requiring the city to acquire those straws alongside compostable ones so they are available for people whose medical or physical conditions make flexible compostable paper straws unsuitable.⁠[1]

The distinction matters: the flexible straws would remain permitted without Council signoff under this section, while the explicit obligation to supply them for those needs would disappear. The amendment would not itself prohibit the city from continuing to acquire them.⁠[1]

The committee recommended ordinance 26-O-1599 unanimously, with five members voting in favor and two absent, according to its draft minutes. That was a recommendation, not final approval. The minutes list November 2 at 1 p.m. as the next step; the ordinance says its changes would take effect immediately upon approval.⁠[1][2]