The last straw? Trump’s ‘back to plastic’ push could reverse progress on single-use plastics

While the world moves towards phasing out single-use plastics, there is now a presidential shove towards reinstating plastic straws in the United States. President Donald Trump, with a simple executive order, is reigniting a debate that goes far beyond straws, questioning the global fight against plastic pollution.

An order on February 10, 2025 by Trump directed government agencies to stop buying paper straws and called for a strategy to eliminate them nationwide. It also encouraged the US government and consumers to purchase plastic drinking straws, reversing efforts by his predecessor to phase out single-use plastics and tackle waste. 

He stated, “I don’t think plastic is going to affect a shark very much, as they’re munching their way through the ocean.”

Plastic straws, a ubiquitous feature of beverage consumption, have been in use for over a century. The first patent for a drinking straw was filed in 1888 by Marvin Stone, paving the way for a revolutionary shift in how drinks were consumed. The widely recognised ‘bendy straw,’ technically known as the ‘articulated straw,’ was introduced by Joseph Friedman in 1937. 

However, it was only after the Second World War, with the rise of global brands and industrial expansion, that the mass production of these disposable drinking aids truly took off. With globalisation, plastic straws became a household staple in nearly every nation. These straws are predominantly made from polypropylene, a thermoplastic polymer. Smaller quantities are also manufactured using polyvinyl chloride or polyethylene.

Plastic straws are among the most littered items globally, alongside cigarette butts and toothbrushes. While the exact number of discarded plastic straws remains unquantified, estimates suggest an enormous waste accumulation in landfills and oceans.

A widely cited but debated figure from 2011 estimated that the US alone generated approximately 500 million single-use plastic straws daily. In Europe, the annual estimated figure reached 25.3 billion, with the largest contributions from the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Although some plastic straws, composed of single-polymer materials, are technically recyclable, their lightweight nature makes collection and transport highly inefficient. Local waste management authorities often refuse to collect them and mechanical recycling facilities struggle to process them due to inconsistent supply.

Consequently, plastic straws end up in landfills or infiltrate waterways, eventually reaching the oceans. The impact of plastic straws on marine life and the environment is well documented. The seemingly innocuous plastic straw has severe consequences. 

Our Last Straw, a coalition of businesses in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, stated that nearly 7.5 million plastic straws were found on US shorelines during a five-year cleanup research project. When extrapolated globally, this equates to approximately 8.3 billion plastic straws on the world’s coastlines. 

Plastic straws are the seventh most collected item from beaches worldwide. Analytical and consultancy firm ResourceWise estimated that 6 billion plastic straws were being consumed in India annually before 2022.

Over the last decade, global coalitions and activism have pushed for the phasing out of plastic straws. Plastic straws fall under the category of problematic, unnecessary and avoidable plastics, prompting countries to develop criteria for identifying such materials. This simply means their environmental impact far outweighs their utility. 

India, Nigeria, China, Chile, France, England, Kenya, Bangladesh, Taiwan and Tanzania have all banned plastic straws. In India, 19 single-use plastic items, including plastic straws and stirrers, were banned in 2022. 

The Biden administration had also halted the use of plastic straws and mandated the phase-out of single-use plastics from all federal government operations by 2035. However, President Trump, defying global consensus, announced his reversal of these policies on the Trump-owned social media platform ‘Truth Social’ before signing an executive order three days later. 

While plastic straws face bans in major countries, discussions regarding their alternatives remain complex. Paper straws, often perceived as a more sustainable option, present their own environmental challenges.

A recent study conducted by the University of Antwerp, Belgium, found that paper straws contain traces of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, similar to plastic straws. These chemicals are known to disrupt the endocrine systems of living organisms. Additionally, paper straws contribute to increased greenhouse gas emissions when they degrade in open environments.

This ongoing debate extends beyond plastic versus paper. The broader concern is the necessity of a legally binding Global Plastic Treaty, which the United Nations and its member states have been working towards. The US has historically been reluctant to take leadership roles in major Multilateral Environmental Agreements. 

Given the nation’s high levels of plastic production and consumption, expectations for stronger environmental commitments remain unmet. With President Trump, a well-known climate change sceptic, returning to the Oval Office, the influence of ‘like-minded countries’ — a group of nations, including major oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia, that generally oppose strict limitations on plastic production due to their petrochemical interests — is expected to grow. This will likely weaken global efforts to curb plastic pollution by 2040.

Plastic straws represent only a small fraction of the broader plastic pollution crisis. The risk of banning plastic straws in isolation is that it gives companies and consumers a false sense of accomplishment. To genuinely address plastic pollution, nations and economies must transition away from all forms of single-use plastics across entire value chains. Achieving this shift requires global consensus and a strong, legally binding global plastic treaty.

For alternatives to plastic and paper, drinking straws made of metal, glass, bamboo and coconut leaves have a lower environmental impact throughout their life cycle. The goal is not merely to replace one single-use material with another, as this merely shifts the environmental burden from one material to another. 

Instead, systemic shifts are necessary, such as the promotion of reuse and the adoption of reusable materials, which may have a higher carbon and water footprint during manufacturing but whose continued reuse outweighs the single-use nature of any material. Compostable straws made of biopolymers such as polylactic acid and polyhydroxyalkanoates have also disrupted existing waste processing mechanisms and further research is required to validate their long-term sustainability.

The fate of plastic straws is emblematic of the broader struggle against plastic pollution. While bans represent an initial step, they must be supported by comprehensive policies that address the root causes of plastic dependency.

A robust, legally binding Global Plastic Treaty is essential to unify efforts worldwide and drive meaningful change. Without such measures, the progress made in banning single-use plastics remains fragile and the world risks regressing into old habits.