Kickstart: What does Trump mean by ‘BACK TO PLASTIC'?

Donald Trump interrupted our Friday deadline schedule last week with his surprise posts on Truth Social and X announcing that he plans to issue an executive order this week ending federal restrictions on plastic straws.

"BACK TO PLASTIC!" the X post shouted, and it generated an instant reaction. On Truth Social, Trump wrote: "Crooked Joe's MANDATE, 'NO PLASTIC STRAWS, ONLY PAPER,' IS DEAD! Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!"

Trump signed the order on Feb. 10. “These things don’t work,” Trump said of paper straws during the ceremony. “I’ve had them many times, and on occasion they break, they explode. If something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation.”

You probably won't be surprised that a lot of people don't like paper straws. Even Kamala Harris, who's usually cited as an example of an anti-plastic liberal, wasn't a fan of paper straws.

It was a September 2019 CNN town hall on climate change where she said, in response to a question, "I think we should" ban plastic straws, although she immediately added: "I mean look, I'm going to be honest, it's really difficult to drink out of a paper straw … like if you don't gulp it down immediately, it starts to bend," Harris said.

President Joe Biden has also been tagged as being anti-plastic, because in July 2024 his administration issued an 83-page report on plastics policy that included calls for phasing out federal procurement of single-use plastics by 2027 in foodservice operations, events and packaging. That appears to be the rule that Trump plans to overturn.

But Biden's plastics policy report was never implemented, and in fact he issued it just hours before he dropped out of the presidential race. I expected plastics issues to be part of the 2024 presidential race, but they really never came up.

So what, if anything, does Trump's executive order mean from a policy perspective? And can we assume that this is just the beginning of a big change in other plastics-related policies from Washington? Join Steve Toloken and me today, Feb. 11, to discuss that issue in the February Plastics in Politics Live.

Trump's announcement stirred some excitement on plastics industry social media, including our own channels. And, as you'd expect, most of the people who like and follow Trump also agreed with his apparent pro-plastic proclamation.

But does that mean people really like single-use plastics now? Or just that they don't like paper straws?

The day before Trump's announcement, Oceana released the results of a new nationwide poll revealing that a majority of U.S. voters support policies that reduce single-use plastics.

"President Trump is moving in the wrong direction on single-use plastics," said Oceana's Plastics Campaign Director Christy Leavitt. "Recent Oceana polling reveals that 80 percent of U.S. voters strongly support requiring companies to reduce single-use plastic packaging and foodware."

Finally, one more unexpected angle to the plastic straw story. Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom, jumped on Trump's announcement last week and declared that plastic straws were to blame for her unsuccessful administration.

"I tried to stop the ludicrous British government plastic straw ban back in 2018. These lefty policies resulted in the Conservatives getting trounced in 2024," Truss wrote on X. "Good for @realDonaldTrump for standing up for common sense."

You've heard the term "go woke, go broke"? Maybe Trump and Truss can start a new one: "Go paper, go poor." But doesn't anyone remember the video of the turtle?