President Donald Trump said on Feb. 7 that he would sign an executive order ending the federal government’s push to transition away from single-use plastic straws.
The order would target past actions from the previous administration that directed federal agencies to transition away from using plastic for single-use products such as straws, cups, cutlery, and disposable bags.
The order defined single-use plastic products as including “plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and disposable plastic bags that are designed for or intended to be used once and discarded.”
Haaland wrote that the Interior Department had an “obligation to play a leading role in reducing the impact of plastic waste on our ecosystems and our climate.” Much of that plastic waste ends up in the ocean, the agency noted.
That action targeted plastic pollution in a broader effort to reduce environmental pollution, particularly within oceans, waterways, rivers, and lakes. It described efforts from both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in transitioning “away from plastic to paper straws, paper-based to-go containers, and biodegradable cutlery.”
In 2023, the GOP-led House of Representatives advanced a measure to block the federal government from banning the sale of plastic straws on public lands and in national parks.
Trump commented on the topic of banning plastic straws in 2019.
“I do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws,” he told reporters on the White House South Lawn in July 2019. “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?”
