Council votes to swap city’s plastics-purchasing ban for case-by-case approval

Atlanta’s City Council voted 10–0 on November 2 to replace city government’s ban on acquiring certain disposable plastics with a requirement for Council approval of each covered contract, regardless of price, according to draft action minutes.⁠[1][2]

The distinction is bigger than an extra purchasing check. The ordinance strikes the sentence prohibiting city agencies from buying or otherwise acquiring the covered serviceware and substitutes a path to acquisition with Council signoff. It covers plastic bags, plastic straws and polystyrene items. Its scope is city government acquisitions—not residents’ shopping.⁠[2]

A separate deletion affects accessibility. Contracts for disposable flexible plastic drinking straws would remain exempt from this section’s requirements. But the ordinance removes the obligation to acquire those straws alongside compostable ones so they are available to people whose medical or physical conditions make flexible compostable paper straws unsuitable.⁠[2]

In short: those flexible plastic straws would still be allowed without Council signoff under this section, but the explicit requirement to supply them for those needs would disappear. The amendment would not prohibit the city from continuing to acquire them.⁠[2]

Councilmember Alex Wan’s ordinance, 26-O-1599, has now moved beyond the committee-backed proposal we reported October 29. The Finance/Executive Committee recommended it unanimously on October 28; the November 2 vote establishes adoption by the full Council.⁠[1][2]

The ordinance says the amendments take effect immediately upon approval. The records reviewed establish Council adoption, but do not establish mayoral approval or that the changes are already in effect.⁠[1][2]