US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order reversing the ban on eco-friendly paper straws.
According to BBC, Trump has ended the government’s ban on plastic straws, which will take effect immediately.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, the 47th US president said, “We’re going back to plastic straws.”
He continued, “These things [paper straws] don’t work. I’ve used them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode. If something’s hot, they don’t last very long—sometimes just a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation.”
The order reverses a measure signed by former president Joe Biden, who called plastic pollution a “crisis.”
Additionally, last week, Trump criticized paper straws, saying they “don’t work” and “disgustingly” dissolve in consumers’ mouths.
In 2024, Biden ordered a gradual end to US government purchases of plastic straws, plastic packaging, and cutlery.
Meanwhile, during his 2020 election campaign, Trump sold branded plastic straws, earning nearly $500,000 from straw sales alone.
Trump has now ordered government agencies to stop purchasing paper straws and called for a strategy to eliminate them nationwide.
Notably, in an effort to curb plastic pollution, the Biden administration announced last year that single-use plastics would be gradually phased out from food packaging, operations, and events by 2027 and completely removed from all federal operations by 2035.
