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Donald Trump, President of the United States, has signed an enforcement order to complete the US government’s efforts to replace plastic straws with paper.
An immediate order reverses the measure signed by former President Joe Biden, who called plastic contamination a “crisis”.
Last week, Trump, who sold branded plastic straw during his 2020 election campaign, said the paper straw was “not working” and “disgustingly” soluble in consumers’ mouths.
In 2024, Biden gradually ended the US government’s plastic straws, as well as plastic cutlery and packaging.
Trump directs government agencies to stop buying paper straw and call on a strategy to be abolished nationwide.
“We will return to plastic straws,” Trump told the White House journalists on Monday.
“These things don’t work, they often have them, and they break up occasionally, explode. If something is hot, they don’t last too long like a minute, sometimes a second question. This is a ridiculous situation,” Trump said.
As part of the wider effort to target plastic pollution, the Biden administration announced last year that it will gradually eliminate single-used plastics from food packaging, operations and events, and by 2035 all federal operations by 2027.
Trump has long been critical of paper straw.
During his re -elected campaign in 2020, which he eventually lost, he sold the “Trump” branded plastic straw -$ 15 for a $ 10 package -to replace what he called “liberal” paper straws.
Overall, the campaign is said to have almost $ 500,000 from straw sales only in the first weeks.
Some statistics Place the number of disposable drinking straws used In the United States at 500 million per year – although this number is violently disputed and can be about half of the real amount.
Many American cities and states – including Seattle, Washington; California; Oregon; And New Jersey – They have adopted rules that limit the use of plastic straws or require businesses to ensure that they are only provided after customers were invited.
Statistics from the UN environmental program show that 460 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, contributing to the ocean waste and microplastics that can affect human health.
Some studies have shown that paper straw contains a significant amount of “eternal chemicals”, such as Polluor -alkil materials or PFAs.
PFAs have been able to stay in the environment for decades, contaminate water supply and cause various health problems.
