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The president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed on Monday an executive order aimed at encouraging the US government and consumers to buy plastic straws to drink, delaying the efforts of their predecessor to gradually eliminate the plastics of A single use and address waste.
“We will return to the plastic straws,” Trump told White House journalists by signing the order, saying that paper straws “do not work.”
“I don’t think plastic affects a shark, since they are eating the ocean,” Trump said.
The order says that the US government. “Stop buying paper straws and make sure that they are no longer provided within federal buildings.” It also orders the government to create a national strategy to end the use of paper straws within 45 days.
Trump’s Democratic predecessor, President Joe Biden, proposed environmental measures to reduce the consumption of single -useal use plastics, which damage ecosystems and pollute food supplies. His administration also supported a global treaty aimed at putting a limit to plastic production.
Monday’s executive order was part of a broader weakening of Trump’s environmental commitments, who in one of the first acts of his second term eliminated the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time.
Trump also rescinded a Biden administration policy to put an end to the use of all single -use plastic products in federal lands by 2032.
Look | Why it is so difficult to end the plastic pollution:
Thousands of delegates are in Ottawa trying to mark a historical treaty to end plastic pollution, but the way to get is full of obstacles. Susan Ormiston de CBC examines why it is so difficult to stop the problem and what will be needed so that the world agrees in a plan.
Dozens of countries have imposed prohibitions on several types of single -use plastics, produced mainly through petrochemicals and have been used to make shopping bags, bottles and other disposable items.
The Canadian government had listed plastic articles and toxic to prohibit the sale of some plastic items, including plastic bags, cutlery, food service dishes, sticks and straws. However, a series of large companies in the plastic industry questioned the list in court. In 2023, a judge of the Federal Court ruled that the list is “unreasonable and unconstitutional.” The federal government is appealing the ruling.
LOOK | The Federal Court annuls the single -use plastic ban:
Many single -use plastics were prohibited throughout the country in December, but the Federal Court ruled that it is not constitutional on Thursday. But it may still not mean a return to plastic bags and straws.
If new controls are not introduced, the amount of plastic waste thrown into the environment is expected to increase 81 million tons in 2020 to 119 million tons in 2040, according to the OECD investigation published last year.
Negotiations on a global treaty to control plastic pollution broke up last year, with large plastic producing nations reluctant to commit to union output limits.
The negotiations will resume this year, but Aleksandar Rankovic, director of the common initiative, a group of environmental experts, said it would not be surprised if Washington now retired from the conversations.
“With the pro-aceite and gas posture of the new administration, one can expect the United States to converge with countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia and opposes the adoption of global objectives to reduce plastic production,” he said.
