By Ed Malik, A | ed@ddnewsonline.com | posted 17th february, 2025
On February 10, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14208, titled “Ending Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws,” which directs federal agencies to cease purchasing paper straws and ensure they are not provided within federal buildings, calling it an “irrational campaign against plastic straws.”.
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This action reverses a policy from the previous administration that aimed to phase out single-use plastics, including straws, from federal operations by 2035.
President Trump criticized paper straws as “nonfunctional,” citing issues with durability and cost, and questioned their environmental benefits, noting that they are sometimes individually wrapped in plastic.
He also downplayed the environmental impact of plastic straws, stating, “I don’t think that plastic is going to affect the shark very much as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean.”
The plastics industry welcomed the executive order, with leaders advocating for a broader acceptance of plastic products. However, environmental advocates criticized the move, emphasizing the ongoing global plastic pollution crisis and the need to reduce single-use plastics to protect marine life and ecosystems.
This decision is part of a series of actions by the Trump administration to roll back environmental policies established by the previous administration. Notably, during his 2020 reelection campaign, President Trump sold Trump-branded reusable plastic straws, reflecting his longstanding opposition to bans on plastic straws.
“We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said. “These things don’t work. I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode.”
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“I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Feb. 7.
However, the White House was clear that the president is concerned about promoting a “clean and healthy environment” for U.S. citizens. The administration touted its “common-sense approach” to environmental issues, saying it is committed to preserving the United States’ natural resources.
To highlight the commitment, the order’s fact sheet cited enhanced forest management practices aimed at reducing wildfire risks and a temporary halt on wind farm expansion because of environmental concerns.
REVERSING BIDEN’S ORDER
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on environmental issues, including plastic straws, in December 2021. The order was part of an effort to reach 100 percent carbon-free electricity and 100 percent zero-emission vehicle acquisitions within the next 10 years.
The Biden administration said it “must build on past progress and pursue new strategies to improve the Nation’s preparedness and resilience to the effects of a changing climate.”
One portion of Biden’s executive order required federal agencies to take aggressive steps to reduce single-use plastic products, and annual reports were required to track progress toward eliminating them.
Following that order, then-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland also issued an order calling on staffers to submit plans to reduce plastic product usage. Haaland included in her request a call to reduce the use of “plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery, and disposable plastic bags.”
As outlined by the order, the environmental campaign enacted by Trump’s predecessor—which included a review of contracts to find ways to reduce plastic use—caused businesses and even some large cities to ban the use of the straws or their automatic inclusion with beverages.
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“Plastic straws are often replaced by paper straws, which are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws,” Trump’s executive order states. “Additionally, paper straws sometimes come individually wrapped in plastic, undermining the environmental argument for their use.”
Some proponents of the plastic straw ban have pointed to the possible environmental harm that plastics could do.
“Plastics contain more than 16,000 chemicals, with over 3,200 known to cause cancer, disrupt hormones, contribute to obesity, or trigger early puberty in children,” Lisa Ramsden, Greenpeace USA’s senior plastics campaigner, said in a Feb. 10 statement.
“These chemicals have also been linked to reproductive health problems and declining fertility.”
WHERE HARRIS STOOD
Even before the executive order, Trump had been clear that he did not think plastic straws were a critical issue. When questioned about a possible plastic straw ban in 2019, Trump told a reporter, “I do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws.”
He also said, “You know, it’s interesting about plastic straws: So, you have a little straw, but what about the plates, the wrappers, and everything else that are much bigger and they’re made of the same material?”
Late in the 2024 presidential campaign, former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was at the time the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, voiced a similar position on the straws.
In September 2024, a Harris campaign official said Harris did not support the ban. The official said that although Harris was focused on climate issues, she did not “support banning plastic straws” and found paper straws inadequate.
The campaign position was a change from the stance Harris had taken at a 2019 town hall, where she spoke about the “climate crisis” and said plastic straws should be banned. She was consistent, however, in saying that paper straws do not get the job done.
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“I think we should, yes,” Harris said when asked about banning plastic straws. “Look, I’m going to be honest: It’s really difficult to drink out of a paper straw—like, if you don’t gulp it down immediately, it starts to bend, and then the little thing catches it. So we have got to kind of perfect that one a little bit more.”
NOTE: The Epoch Times was referenced.