US president signs order on plastic drinking straws
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging the US government and consumers to buy plastic drinking straws, pushing back efforts by his predecessor to phase out single-use plastics and tackle waste.
“We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he signed the order, saying that paper straws “don’t work.”
“I don’t think plastic is going to affect a shark very much, as they’re munching their way through the ocean,” Trump said.
Trump’s Democratic predecessor, President Joe Biden, had proposed environmental measures to lower consumption of nonbiodegradable single-use plastics, which damage ecosystems and contaminate food supplies.
A voluntary action plan was published by the US Environmental Protection Agency in November.
Weakened commitments
Monday’s executive order was part of a broader weakening of environmental commitments by Trump, who in one of the first acts of his second term, removed the United States from the Paris climate agreement for the second time.
