US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to end the US government's efforts to replace plastic straws with paper.
The order, which comes into force immediately, overturns a measure signed by former President Joe Biden, who called the plastic pollution “crisis”.
Last week, Trump – who sold branded plastic straws during his election campaign in 2020 – said the paper straws “do not work” and “disgusting” dissolved in the mouth of the users.
In 2024, Biden gradually arranged the end of the government's government purchases of the US, as well as plastic utensils and packaging.
The Trump Directive ordered government agencies to stop buying paper straws and calling for a strategy to eliminate them throughout the country.
“We are returning to plastic straws,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday.
“These things do not work, I have had them many times and sometimes they break, they break out. If something is hot, they don't last very long, like a few minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It's a ridiculous situation,” Trump said.
As part of the broader efforts to direct plastic pollution, Biden's administration last year announced that it would gradually remove disposable plastics from packaging, operations and events of food and events and from all federal operations by 2035.
Trump is a longtime critic of paper straws.
During his campaign to be re -elected in 2020, which he eventually lost, Trump branded plastic straws were sold – at $ 15 per package of 10 – as a substitute for what he called “liberal” paper straws S
In total, it reports that the campaign is nearly $ 500,000 from straw sales in the first few weeks alone.
Some statistics Place the number of disposable drinking straws In the US with 500 million a day – although this figure is hotly contested and the real amount can be about half of this.
A number of cities and states in the United States – including Seattle, Washington; California; Oregon; And New Jersey – have accepted rules that limit the use of plastic straws or require businesses to provide them only after they have been requested by customers.
The UN Environment Program statistics show that 460 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, contributing to waste in the ocean and microplasty, which can affect human health.
However, some studies have shown that paper straws contain significant amounts of “forever chemicals”, such as polyfluoroalkils or PFAS.
PFAS can remain in the environment for decades, pollute water supply and cause various health problems.