A world restored: The U.S. takes the offensive against paper straws

Japan Times

06-05-2025

Little noticed amid the Trump administration's efforts to close U.S. borders to illegal drugs, impose tariffs that rebalance global trade, rid the country of illegal immigrants and end the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, is its determination to end the use of paper straws.
The Trump team has issued an executive order and a national strategy to rid the country of 'the pulpy, soggy mess that torments too many of our citizens whenever they drink through a paper straw.'
Trump has been drinking from this bitter cup for some time. During the 2020 campaign he complained that 'Has anyone tried those paper straws? They're not working too good,' adding, 'It disintegrates as you drink it.' Worse, 'on occasion, they break, they explode.'
His campaign website offered plastic recyclable straws in packs of 10 for $15, noting 'liberal paper straws don't work' and urged customers to buy them to 'stand with President Trump.' Reportedly, they sold over 140,000 straws and raised more than $200,000.
The last straw for Trump was a Biden program that sought to phase out single-use plastic utensils, including drinking straws, across government agencies by 2035. That was part of a larger eco-friendly agenda and sought to reduce the purported half billion straws used in the United States each day. After all, the biggest single consumer of straws is the federal government, which deploys them in federal buildings and offices, national parks and other places.
Less than a month after Donald Trump returned to the White House, he issued an executive order that 'ended the procurement and forced use of paper straws.' It denounced 'an irrational campaign against plastic straws (that) has resulted in major cities, States and businesses banning the use or automatic inclusion of plastic straws with beverages.' It directs the heads of federal agencies and departments to 'take all appropriate action to eliminate the procurement of paper straws and otherwise ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings' and it calls for 'The elimination of all policies within the executive branch designed to disfavor plastic straws.'
It also mandates creation of a National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws within 45 days, a tight deadline given the customary speed at which the government works.
The White House Domestic Policy Council made it a priority, however, and delivered, issuing that strategy on March 28. It is a 36-page document, with seven pages of references, that provides 'a whole host of reasons as to why paper straws are unsatisfactory and a plan of action to combat their promotion and usage.'
The strategy is guided by a single, simple principle: 'When American citizens visit a coffee shop or restaurant, they deserve effective and safe utensils. Too often, they have not had that option because of absurd government mandates to use paper straws.' It dismisses the Biden plan as a 'disastrous Green New Scam' that calls for the elimination of plastic straws. Not only does the strategy '(bring) common sense back to our beverages' but it's patriotic, too: 'Aside from apple pie, there's hardly anything more American than the plastic straw,' an assertion that is documented in the paper.
The case for paper straws, warns the strategy, is paper thin. They're 'not only an annoyance but also a genuine risk to human health, public safety and the environment. Across nearly every relevant criterion, replacing plastic straws with paper alternatives is not justified.'
The strategy identifies six inadequacies. First, they lack the structural integrity of plastic alternatives. They get wet, the paper weakens and tears. Researchers at the North Carolina State University found after less than 30 minutes of exposure to liquid, paper straws experienced a 70% to 90% reduction in compressive strength. (The scientific research that dots this analysis underlines the seriousness with which the administration takes this issue.)
Second, paper straws contain PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), often called 'forever chemicals' because of their extremely long lifespans that have been linked to harms affecting reproductive health, developmental delays in children, cancer, hormone imbalance, obesity and other dangerous health conditions. Again, research shows paper straws contain more PFAS than plastic ones, placing Americans 'at an unnecessarily higher health risk every time they drink from paper straws.'
Third, paper straws pose safety hazards: choking, especially for young children, and insufficient durability for people with disabilities that prevent them from drinking quickly. (See point 1, above.)
Fourth, paper straws 'unduly burden Americans with disabilities.' The document gives special weight to the inconveniences and dangers experienced by those with disabilities, contrasting the Trump administration's concern for this group with that of Biden. It concludes that 'The voices of individuals with disabilities — who had difficulty with modern straw alternatives and therefore could not always receive equal accommodation in public spaces — were marginalized.' Indeed, 'all Americans, regardless of their disability status, deserve an equal right to drink from a straw at a restaurant.'
Fifth, plastic straws represent an insignificant share of pollution — 0.025% of all plastic in the oceans. The authors conclude that the 'overall threat posed by plastic straws is tiny and suggest that the product has been unfairly demonized and focused on.'
Finally, there is cost. Paper straws can cost as much as four times that of conventional plastic straws, contributing to government expense and waste. Biden's paper straw procurement mandate would cost taxpayers 88% more each time the government ordered straws. Thus, the strategy concludes that 'Trump is cutting government waste on ineffective plastic straws.'
All U.S. government agencies and departments are instructed to help end Americans' 'suffering the indignity of this useless product.' In addition to ending their procurement in government-run cafeterias and coffee shops, the Commerce Department, for example, has been tasked with thoroughly examining the supply chains and countries of origins for paper straws.
As the strategy concludes, 'Americans deserve better than paper straws.' Common sense, says its authors, 'requires us to do battle with the ridiculous, whatever form it takes. The end of paper straws is yet another victory in this campaign.' This long national nightmare will end.
Brad Glosserman is deputy director of and visiting professor at the Center for Rule-Making Strategies at Tama University as well as senior adviser (nonresident) at Pacific Forum. His new book on the geopolitics of high-tech is expected to come out from Hurst Publishers this fall.