Donald Trump has signed an executive order demanding a return to plastic straws, claiming their impact on marine life is limited and calling paper versions “ridiculous”. The Telegraph has more.
The President’s directive rips up the target set by Joe Biden, his predecessor, to eliminate single-use plastic utensils, such as straws, across Government agencies by 2035.
“We’re going back to plastic straws,” Mr Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office on Monday.
“These things don’t work, 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,” he said.
Environmentalists have long campaigned for an end to the use of plastic utensils, pointing to its polluting of marine environments, breakdown into harmful microplastics and devastating impact on wildlife. …
But Mr Trump, whose long-standing vexation with paper straws became a favoured routine on the Presidential campaign trail, has rejected the concerns.
“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,” he said.
Will Scharf, the White House Staff Secretary, said the environmental impact was “entirely debatable” and American consumers were “wildly dissatisfied with their straws”, as he handed over the document for Mr Trump to sign.
Figures suggest Americans use millions of plastic straws each day.
Worth reading in full.
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