The 47th President is determined to ‘make straws great again’.
President Donald Trump has said that he will sign an executive order “ending the ridiculous Biden push for paper straws, which don’t work”.
Biden’s administration had been working towards a target to eliminate single-used plastic utensils like drinking straws by 2035 in government departments.
But Trump has declared his intent to undo the previous president’s work.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the former businessman wrote: “I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!”
The statement comes just weeks after Trump made the decision to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement.
During a campaign rally in the 2020 election against Biden, he said: “They want to ban straws. Has anyone tried those paper straws? They’re not working too good.”
“It disintegrates as you drink it,” Trump added.
Mr Trump’s campaign team has also sold branded plastic straws with the slogan: “Liberal paper straws don’t work.”
In a follow-up post today, the 78-year-old added: “Crooked Joe’s MANDATE, “NO PLASTIC STRAWS, ONLY PAPER,” IS DEAD! Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!”
Single-use plastic products include bottles, straws, cups, cutlery, bags, and polystyrene food and beverage containers that are designed for one-time use. Americans use an estimated 500 million plastic straws each day.
The push to ban plastic straws – which followed a particularly gruesome video of a turtle with a straw up its nose – started in the late 2010s. In 2018, the city of Seattle became the first in the country to issue a ban.
