President Donald Trump Feb. 10 signed an executive order directing federal agencies to support buying plastic straws.
"We're going back to plastics," Trump said in a video of the White House signing ceremony. "We're going back to plastic straws."
The order directs federal agencies to stop buying paper straws and to no longer provide them in federal buildings, and it orders Trump’s domestic policy council to, within 45 days, develop a U.S.-wide strategy “to alleviate the forced use of paper straws nationwide.”
“The irrational campaign against plastic straws has forced Americans to use nonfunctional paper straws,” the order said, accusing cities and states of “caving to pressure from woke activists who prioritize symbolism over science.”Trump had posted on social media Feb. 7 that he would soon sign an order overturning what he called a "ridiculous Biden push for paper straws," although the Biden administration had not specifically banned plastic straws.
A Trump aide on a video of the ceremony said the order asks federal agencies "to look at their existing procurement processes" and direct Trump's domestic policy council "to look holistically at this issue."
As he signed the order, Trump launched into an apparent criticism of paper straws.
"These things don't work," he said. "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.
Trump ended his remarks with a brief reference to sharks: "I don't think that plastic is going to affect a shark very much as they're eating, as they're munching their way through the ocean."
The environmental group Oceana said the executive order is "headed in the wrong direction on single-use plastics" and it pointed to the harm from plastics in the environment and microplastics in people's bodies.
"Instead of doing what is necessary to protect Americans from harmful plastic pollution, President Trump is announcing executive orders that are more about messaging than finding solutions," said Christy Leavitt, U.S. plastics campaign director for the group. "President Trump should be making the U.S. a global leader in addressing the plastics crisis at the source by reducing the production and use of single-use plastics and moving to reuse and refill systems."
Trump’s order said paper straws carry risks to human health from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, of PFAS, that can bleed from the straw into drinks, and it said that paper straws can be more expensive.
“Paper straws are not the eco-friendly alternative they claim to be – studies have shown that producing paper straws can have a larger carbon footprint and require more water than plastic straws,” according to the order, which said it “ends the procurement and forced use of paper straws.”
The Biden administration did not directly ban plastic straws.
In July 2024, Biden had 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. But that report was never implemented.
Previously, Biden's Department of the Interior had issued a policy to limit single-use plastics in national parks and other public lands, but it put off implementation until after 2030.
Additionally, Biden's General Services Administration last year rejected a push by environmental groups for an outright ban on government agencies buying single-use plastics. Instead, it adopted voluntary measures.
