Trump signs order to buy plastic straws, eliminate paper straws

By Thomson Reuters – CBC News

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging the U.S. 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 that 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Trump also rescinded a Biden administration policy to end the use of all single-use plastic products on federal lands by 2032.