“BACK TO PLASTIC!” he posted on his social media platform Truth Social.

Last summer, the Biden administration announced an initiative to reduce single-use plastics in federal operations.

In addition to working with the private sector, other stakeholders, and state, local, Tribal, and Territorial governments to reduce the impact of plastic pollution, it planned to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035.

“The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that pollution can occur at every stage of the plastic lifecycle, disproportionately impacting communities with environmental justice concerns, contributing to loss of biodiversity, and exacerbating the impacts of climate change,” it said.

Previously, the government had said it supports a goal to end plastic pollution by 2040.

“Plastic pollution negatively impacts our environment and public health with underserved and overburdened communities hit hardest,” former EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in August 2023.

Biden issued an executive order in 2022 calling for agencies to minimize waste and support markets for recycled products.

“The Interior Department has an obligation to play a leading role in reducing the impact of plastic waste on our ecosystems and our climate,” former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in response. “As the steward of the nation’s public lands, including national parks and national wildlife refuges, and as the agency responsible for the conservation and management of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats, we are uniquely positioned to do better for our Earth.”

Single-use plastic products include bottles, straws, cups, cutlery, bags, and polystyrene food and beverage containers that are designed for one-time use. Americans use an estimated 500 million plastic straws each day.

The push to ban plastic straws – which followed a particularly gruesome video of a turtle with a straw up its nose – started in the late 2010s. In 2018, the city of Seattle became the first in the country to issue a ban.

A switch to paper straws has come with some valid criticism regarding their effectiveness – including from the president – and a study in 2023 found they have their own health risks: namely, forever chemicals. Metal and glass straws aren’t much better for the environment, but hold up longer than plastic.

Plastic straws, which aren’t recyclable, are a microcosm of a much larger, global issue that the fossil fuel industry Trump supports has wrought.

Nearly 100 percent of all plastics are made from fossil fuels. In addition to harming the Earth’s oceans, waterways, and ecosystems, breaking down into microplastics and choking wildlife, their production contributes to climate change.

The manufacture of plastics emits 184 to 213 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, according to the University of Colorado Boulder’s Environmental Center. Plastics also expel greenhouse gases when they are exposed to sunlight break down.

A worrying analysis from the group Beyond Plastics found that the U.S. plastics industry will be a bigger contributor to climate change than coal-fired power in the nation by 2030.