US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order, reversing back the shift from eco-friendly paper straws.
As per BBC, Trump has put an end to the plastic straws ban issued by the government, which will take effect immediately.
The 47th US president told reporters at the White House on Monday, "We're going back to plastic straws."
He continued, "These things [paper straws] don't work, I've had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode. If something's hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It's a ridiculous situation."
The order would reverse a measure signed by former president Joe Biden, who called plastic pollution a "crisis."
Additionally, last week Trump said paper straws "don’t work" and "disgustingly" dissolve in the mouths of consumers.
In 2024, Biden ordered a gradual end to US government purchases of plastic straws, as well as plastic packaging and cutlery.
Meanwhile, Trump sold branded plastic straws during his 2020 election campaign, which made him nearly $500,000 from the straw sale alone.
Trump has issued an order to government agencies to stop buying paper straws and called for a strategy to eliminate them nationwide.
Notably, to control plastic pollution, the Biden administration last year announced that it would gradually remove single-use plastics from food packaging, operations, and event by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035.
