President Donald Trump announced plans to sign an executive order to reverse President Joe Biden’s initiative to phase out single-use plastic straws in favor of paper alternatives.
Trump criticized paper straws as ineffective and vowed to bring back plastic straws, a move consistent with his broader rollback of Biden-era environmental policies, including withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
“I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
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This latest action is part of Trump’s ongoing opposition to environmental reforms aimed at reducing plastic waste.
During his previous campaign, Trump sold branded plastic straws as an alternative to ‘liberal’ paper straws.
Elon Musk publicly supported Trump’s decision, calling him the ‘greatest president ever’ on social media.
The Biden administration had aimed to eliminate single-use plastics in federal agencies by 2035 as part of a comprehensive plan to combat plastic pollution.
However, in 2023, a Belgian study published in the journal Food Additives and Contaminants found evidence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 39 straw brands from restaurants and retailers. These so-called “forever chemicals” are able to remain in the environment without breaking down for thousands of years. When consumed, they pose relatively little immediate risk, but over time can accumulate in the body and cause thyroid disease, liver and kidney damage, several types of cancer, and birth defects in infants.
The study ran tests on straws made of a variety of materials, including paper, plastic, bamboo, glass, and stainless steel. Of the brands tested, paper and bamboo had the highest PFAS concentrations at 90% and 80% respectively. 75% of plastic straws tested also contained the chemicals, as did 40% of glass. None of the steel straws contained PFAS.
“PFAS were more frequently detected in plant-based materials, such as paper and bamboo,” the study’s authors noted, adding, “The presence of PFAS in plant-based straws shows that they are not necessarily biodegradable and that the use of such straws potentially contributes to human and environmental exposure of PFAS.”
Connor Walcott is the lead writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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