Trump signs order to bring back plastic straws claiming paper ones 'explode'

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to “end the forced use” of paper straws, claiming they “don’t work” and that they “explode”.

The order reverses a Biden administration policy which aimed to phase out federal purchases of single-use plastics, including straws, from food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035.

Federal agencies will now be ordered to stop buying paper straws “and otherwise ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings.”

After signing the order on Monday, Trump said: “We’re going back to plastic straws. These things don’t work.

“I’ve had it many times and on occasion they break. They explode.”

He continued: “It’s a ridiculous situation. So we’re going back to plastic straws. I think it’s okay.

“And I don’t think that plastics is going to affect a shark very much as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean.”

‘We’re going back to plastic straws’: Trump signed an executive order banning the use of paper straws in US government

Previously, Trump has railed against paper straws and supported the use of plastic ones.

His 2019 re-election campaign sold Trump-branded reusable plastic straws for $15 per pack of 10.

Over the weekend, Trump declared President Joe Biden’s policy “DEAD!” in a social media post.

Several US states and cities have banned plastic straws, and some restaurants no longer automatically give them to customers.

Trump’s order is “more about messaging than finding solutions,″ said Christy Leavitt, plastics campaign director for the environmental group Oceana, noting that most US voters support requiring companies to reduce single-use plastic packaging and foodware.

“President Trump is moving in the wrong direction on single-use plastics,” Leavitt said.

“The world is facing a plastic pollution crisis, and we can no longer ignore one of the biggest environmental threats facing our oceans and our planet today.”

However, the plastic manufacturing industry applauded Trump’s move.

“Straws are just the beginning,” Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, said in a statement. “‘Back to Plastic’ is a movement we should all get behind.”

More than 390 million straws are used every day in the United States, mostly for 30 minutes or less, according to advocacy group Straws Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Straws take at least 200 years to decompose and pose a threat to turtles and other wildlife as they degrade into microplastics, the group says.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf, who presented the executive order to Trump, told him the push for paper straws has cost the government and private industry “an absolute ton of money and left consumers all over the country wildly dissatisfied with their straws. It really is something that affects ordinary Americans in their everyday lives.”