‘Back to plastic!’: Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s single-use plastics ban
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he plans to reverse federal efforts to promote paper straws, signaling a return to plastic.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said he will issue an executive order rolling back efforts made by former President Joe Biden’s administration to encourage the federal government to adopt more environmentally friendly paper straws.
“I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” Trump said. The move is his latest on green issues since returning to power, following his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and ordering deregulations as part of a “drill, baby, drill” agenda.
The trend of paper drinking straws has long irritated Trump. “It disintegrates as you drink it, and if you have a nice tie like this tie, you’ve got no choice.”
“They want to ban straws. Has anyone tried those paper straws? They’re not working too good,” he said during a campaign rally in the 2020 election against Biden. Trump’s campaign team has also sold branded plastic straws with the slogan: “Liberal paper straws don’t work.”
In 2022, Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior introduced a policy to phase out all single-use plastic products—such as straws, food containers, and bottles—on federal lands, including national parks, by 2032. Trump’s proposed executive order would reverse this initiative.
