Giving out unsolicited plastic drinking straws in California could soon land restaurants and their employees in hot water. Ian Calderon, a Democratic state assemblyman, has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for restaurant servers to give patrons straws unless they request one.

“We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time-use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways and oceans,” Calderon said in a statement.

Calderon says the bill is not a ban on drinking straws, and any criminal penalties currently tied to the bill were the result of a miscommunication and were never intended to be there. “The penalties are attached to the code section the bill is currently in. That will change. Amendments are part of the legislative process,” Calderon said.

As currently written, the bill would tack the straw rule onto already existing code. Violation of that code carries a fine between $25 and $1,000, up to six months in county jail or both. It would apply to sit-down restaurants, not bars or fast-food locations.

The proposed bill has caused a backlash, with Calderon having to take to Twitter to defend the reasoning behind it. “It was unexpected,” he told The Washington Post. “But, hey, we got everybody talking about straws.”

Environmentalists across the country have been calling for the end of plastic straws for years, amid reports of trash-littered oceans and its negative impact on wildlife. Several cities in California have already passed “straw-on-request” laws. San Luis Obispo passed its ban after nearly 1,400 plastic straws and stirrers were found on a nearby beach.

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