By Matthew Daly
Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump moves to reverse a federal plastic straw, declaring that paper straws “do not work” and do not last very long.
“It is a ridiculous situation. We return to plastic straws, “said Trump on Monday when he signed a decree to examine federal purchasing policies that restrict plastic straws.
Trump’s decision – which has long made its doors against paper straws and whose 2019 re -election campaign sold reusable Trump brand plastic straws for $ 15 per pack of 10 – targets a Biden administration policy To eliminate federal purchases of single -use plastics, including straws, food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and all federal operations by 2035.
Trump declared the policy of President Joe Biden “Death!” In an article on social networks this weekend.
Although plastic straws were accused of polluting the oceans and harming marine life, Trump said on Monday that he thought “that it is normal” to continue using them. “I do not think that plastic will affect the shark a lot because they … snacking on their way through the ocean,” he said during an announcement from the White House.
Several American states and cities have prohibited plastic straws, and some restaurants no longer automatically give them to customers. But plastic straws are just a small part of the problem. The environment is strewn with containers of single -use plastic food and drinks – water bottles, take -out containers, coffee lids, provision bags and more.
All over the world, the equivalent of a garbage plastic truck enters the ocean every minute from a range of sources, including plastic bags, toothbrushes, bottles, food packaging And more, according to experts. While these materials decompose in the environment, microplastics present in the stomach of fish, birds and other animals, as well as in blood and human tissues.
And plastic manufacturing releases greenhouse gases, rejected by the planet and other dangerous pollutants. More than 90% of plastic products come from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, and millions of tonnes of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans each year. Many multinational companies have moved away from plastic straws and have reduced the use of plastic in their operations at the heart of their sustainability objectives, making Trump’s decision an aberrant value in the business world.
Trump’s order is “more on messaging than the search for solutions,” said Christy Leavitt, director of the Plastics campaign for the Oceana environmental group, noting that most American voters support companies to reduce plastic packaging for single use and gumans.
“President Trump is evolving in the wrong direction on single -use plastics,” said Leavitt. “The world faces a plastic pollution crisis, and we can no longer ignore one of the greatest environmental threats that our oceans and our planet face today.”
The plastic manufacturing industry applauded Trump’s decision.
“The straws are only the start,” said Matt Seabolm, president and chief executive officer of the Plastics Industry Association, in a press release. “” Back to plastic “is a movement that we should all be late.”
More than 390 million straws are used every day in the United States, mainly for 30 minutes or less, depending on the Restoration network of Advocacy Group Turtle Island Paintings. The straws take at least 200 years to decompose and constitute a threat to turtles and other wild animals while they deteriorate in microplastics, says the group.
“To prevent another sea turtle from becoming a victim of plastic, we must make changes in personal lifestyle to fight for these species,” the group said in a statement.
Each year, the world produces more than 400 million tonnes of new plastic. According to the United Nations, around 40% of all plastics is used in the packaging.
On a global scale, nations create a treaty to combat plastic pollution. The leaders met for a week in South Korea at the end of last year, but did not conclude an agreement. The discussions resume this year while more than 100 countries are pursuing a pact that limits plastic production and attacks cleaning and recycling.
The United States, China and Germany are the largest players in world plastics. The American manufacturers asked Trump to stay at the negotiating table and return to the previous position of Biden which focused on the overhaul of plastic products, recycling and reuse.
The Secretary of the Staff of the White House, Will Scharf, who presented the decree to Trump, told him that the pressure for paper straws cost the government and the private industry “a ton of money and consumers left in the country in the dissatisfied country of their straws ”.
The order orders federal agencies to examine the supply processes to allow the use of plastic straws. “It’s really something that affects ordinary Americans in their daily lives,” said SCHARF.
The writer Associated Press Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this story.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
