Trump signs executive order on plastic drinking straws

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging the US government and consumers to buy plastic drinking straws, pushing back efforts by his predecessor to phase out single-use plastics and tackle waste.

“We're going back to plastic straws,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he signed the order, saying paper straws “don't work”.

“I don't think plastic is going to affect a shark very much, as they're munching their way through the ocean,” Trump said.

Trump's Democratic predecessor president Joe Biden had proposed environmental measures to lower consumption of non-biodegradable single-use plastics, which damage ecosystems and contaminate food supplies. A voluntary action plan was published by the US Environmental Protection Agency in November.

Monday's executive order was part of a broader weakening of environmental commitments by Trump, who in one of the first acts of his second term removed the US from the Paris climate agreement for the second time.

Trump also rescinded a Biden administration policy to end the use of single-use plastic products on federal lands by 2032.

Dozens of countries have imposed bans on various kinds of single-use plastics, produced mainly through petrochemicals and used to make shopping bags, bottles and other disposable items.

However, negotiations on a global treaty broke down last year with major plastic-producing nations reluctant to commit to binding output caps.

The amount of plastic waste dumped into the environment is projected to rise from 81-million tonnes in 2020 to 119-million tonnes in 2040, according to OECD research published last year.

Reuters