Trump Signs Order to Bring Back Plastic Straws, Claiming Paper Ones ‘Don’t Work’

“It’s a ridiculous situation so we’re going back to plastics,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday as he signed the order.

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that takes aim at paper straws, claiming they “don’t work.”

The order reverses a Biden administration policy to get single-use plastics, including straws, plastic cutlery and packaging, out of federal food service operations by 2035 in a bid to tackle the growing threat of plastic pollution.

“These things [paper straws] don’t work, I’ve had them many times and on occasion they break, they explode. If something’s hot they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday as he signed the order. “It’s a ridiculous situation so we’re going back to plastics.”

The world generates 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, 60% of which end up in our natural environment and only 9% of which is recycled. Plastic, which is mostly produced from fossil fuels, also contributes 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, comparable to the emissions of the entire aviation industry. The US plastic industry produces 232 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gas emissions (CO2e) annually, equal to 116 coal-fired power plants.

Disposable plastics like straws, cutlery, and plates are particularly detrimental, as they require huge amounts of energy, water, and natural resources to serve a customer once.

Trump on Monday also downplayed the impact of plastics on marine life: “I don’t think that plastic is going to affect a shark very much as they’re … munching their way through the ocean,” he said.

Data suggest the opposite, with one study by the World Wildlife Fund estimating that at least 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year, either by ingestion or entanglement.

Research published in December also provided evidence of the widespread presence of plastics fragments and other human-made particles in US seafood. If a total of 182 individual seafood species sampled, 180 were found to contain some levels of microplastics and other anthropogenic particles, including pink shrimp, black rockfish, lingcod, Pacific herring, lamprey, and Chinook salmon. 

Microplastics – tiny plastic particles measuring less than 5 millimeters in diameter, close in size to a sesame seed, that result from the degradation of larger plastics – have been found in bottled drinking water, human blood and organs, mammal feces, and even the air we breathe. While the long-term effects are still unclear, research indicates that microplastics ingestion can lead to various health problems, such as endocrine disruption and potentially cancer.

Global Effort

Recognizing the urgent need for coordinated action, the United Nations in 2022 initiated efforts to establish legally binding commitments among nations to reduce plastic production, enhance recycling efforts, and promote sustainable alternatives. 

Negotiations for a global plastic treaty are still ongoing as hopes to reach an agreement during the latest round of talks in Busan, South Korea, failed to materialize.

Big oil producing countries, particularly Russia and Saudi Arabia, were accused of standing in the way as they opposed any efforts to curb production.

“It is clear there is persisting divergence in critical areas and more time is needed for these areas to be addressed,” said UN Environment Programme’s Executive Director Inger Andersen in December as she adjourned negotiations to a later unspecified date.

More on the topic: Why the World Urgently Needs a Global Plastic Treaty