President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to end the federal procurement of paper straws.
The order, which claims that paper straws are “nonfunctional” and says it wants to end the “forced use” of them, immediately undoes part of a Biden-era initiative to eliminate single-use plastics, including straws, in all government operations by 2035. More broadly, Trump instructed White House staff and “relevant agencies” to issue a “national strategy to end the use of paper straws” within 45 days. The strategy would aim to eliminate all executive branch policies “designed to disfavor plastic straws” and address the federal government’s contracts with states and and other entities “that ban or penalize plastic straw purchase or use.”
Symbolism was the point of the paper straw thing to begin with. We won’t see a reduction in single-use plastics until we get rid of the entire mindset of convenience culture. Plastics make it possible get the exact flavor of corn chips you like from gas station a state away from where you live at 2am. Plastics mean that flavor that only 2% of that local population like or would ever buy can wait on that shelf for 3 months until you’re craving it on a road trip. That entire way of thinking would have to be dismantled, and they need to fight us on this one little symbol to keep us from having that discussion.
And the flavor selection in this country is still terrible. Waxed paper bags it is, then. I will also happily bring my own cloth sacks to the supermarket to refill my dry goods.