On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aimed to encourage the US government and consumers to buy plastic-drinking neck straws, and push back the efforts of its predecessor to remove plastic with individual use and waste fight.
“We go back to plastic straws,” said Trump reporters in the White House when he signed the order and said that paper straws “do not work”.
“I don’t think plastic will have a shark because they are chewing through the ocean,” said Trump.
The order says that the US government “stops buying paper straws and ensuring that they are no longer provided in federal buildings”. The government also deals with developing a national strategy to end the use of paper straws within 45 days.
The democratic predecessor of Trump, President Joe Biden, had proposed environmental measures to reduce the consumption of non -biodegradable single -use plastics, damage ecosystems and contaminate food supply. His administration also supported a global contract that aimed to bring a cap on plastic production.
The executive order on Monday was part of a more comprehensive weakening of Trump’s environmental obligations, which in one of the first files of his second term removed the United States from the Paris climate agreement for the second time.
Trump also raised a bidet management policy to end the use of all one-way plastic products in federal areas by 2032.
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Dozens of countries have imposed different types of disposable plastics, which are mainly produced by petrochemicals and are used for the production of shopping bags, bottles and other disposable items.
The Canadian government had listed plastic articles as toxic to ban the sale of some plastic articles, including plastic funds, cutlery, food service goods, sticks and straws. However, a number of large companies in plastic industry called for the list in court. In 2023, a federal judge decided the list as “inappropriate and unconstitutional”. The Federal Government appeals against the judgment.
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If no new controls are introduced, according to OECD research, which was published last year, the amount of plastic waste loaded into the environment will be exposed from 81 million tons to 119 million tons in 2040.
Negotiations on a global contract to control the plastic pollution last year triggered last year, with the most important plastic-producing nations hugging to binding caps.
The negotiations will be resumed this year, but Aleksandar Rankovic, director of the Common Initiative, an environmental thinking factory, said he would not be surprised if Washington would now pull out of the talks.
“With the pro-oil and gas posture of the new administration, you can expect the United States to come together with countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia and oppose the introduction of global goals to reduce plastic production,” he said.
