Trump signs executive order requiring US to return to plastic straws.
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Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the use of paper straws. US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that ends a US government effort to replace plastic straws with paper ones.
The order, which takes effect immediately, reverses a measure signed by former President Joe Biden, who called plastic pollution a "crisis".
Last week, Trump – who sold branded plastic straws during his 2020 election campaign – said that paper straws "don't work" and disintegrate "disgustingly" in consumers' mouths.
By 2024, Biden has ordered a halt to the US government's purchase of plastic straws, as well as plastic cutlery and packaging. Trump's directive orders government agencies to stop purchasing paper straws and calls for a strategy to phase them out nationwide.
"We're going back to plastic straws," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
"These things don't work, I've had them many times, and sometimes they break, they explode. 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. Trump Straws: How the US President is Using Straws to Defeat Liberals
As part of a broader effort to combat plastic pollution, the Biden administration announced last year that it would phase out single-use plastics from food packaging, operations and events by 2027 and from all federal operations by 2035.
Trump has long been a critic of paper straws.
During his 2020 re-election campaign, which he ultimately lost, Trump-branded plastic straws were sold — at $15 for a pack of 10 — as a replacement for what he called "liberal" paper straws.
In total, the campaign brought in nearly $500,000 in straw sales in its first few weeks alone.
Some statistics indicate that the number of disposable straws used in the United States is 500 million per day - although this figure is highly controversial and the actual total may be around half that number. A number of U.S. cities and states, including Seattle, Washington, California, Oregon and New Jersey, have passed regulations that limit the use of plastic straws or require businesses to provide them only after customers request them.
Statistics from the United Nations Environment Program show that 460 million tons of plastic are produced each year, contributing to ocean litter and microplastics that can affect human health.
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Some studies have shown that paper straws, however, contain significant amounts of "forever chemicals" such as Trump signs executive order requiring US to return to plastic straws.olyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
PFAS can persist in the environment for decades, contaminating groundwater and causing various health problems.
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