EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump’s executive order against paper straws that was signed in February is already beginning to “use all levers available” to cut back on them.
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a domestic policy council report outlining that the White House wants the Food and Drug Administration to look into the PFAS risk of paper straws and “consider restricting their use.” It is also pivoting away from using straws in federal government cafeterias, stopping the purchasing of them in federal contracts across a variety of agencies, and having the United States Department of Agriculture “not promote the development or manufacturing of paper straws in the future.”
“Paper straws are a laughable supposition. They are bad for the environment, they are unhygienic, they are expensive, they contain dangerous forever chemicals, and—as with most things advanced by the previous Administration—they do not work,” the president wrote in a letter included in the report.
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“This is not rocket science—water and other drinks dissolve paper, rendering these straws useless for their sole purpose. A product of a fictitious yet frequently cited statistic, they are inefficient and wasteful. It is ludicrous that anyone saw fit to enforce their use and that these useless implements have infiltrated our marketplaces as much as they have. Among the many things that my Administration is having to roll back, this is among the most absurd,” Trump continued.
The Executive Order came just months after the Biden administration announced plans in July to phase out single-use plastic in the federal government.
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“The Trump Administration has undone this weaponization of government and will use all available levers to bring back common sense, end the use of paper straws, and restore functional utensils for the American people,” the report’s conclusion states, arguing not only that research does not back up the widespread use of paper straws, but also that it may “pose safety risks to children and people with disabilities.”
Blue states such as California and New York currently have laws in place limiting the use of single-use plastic straws in full-service restaurants, unless customers request them.
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Democratic states have also touted the use of paper straws as a more environmentally friendly alternative. Trump has criticized them for years, writing in a 2019 social media post that “liberal paper straws don’t work.”
Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
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