We need to bring back plastic straws - it’s better for the environment, and Trump getting rid of paper makes sense
10 February 2025, 16:11 | Updated: 14 February 2025, 17:50
President Trump is expected to sign another Executive Order this week, this time overturning Biden’s ban on plastic straws, and it’s the correct thing to do.
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It may seem counterintuitive, but this sort of policy shift should be encouraged globally - the original ban on peripheral items like straws is nothing more than gesture politics.
It’s actually better for the environment to use plastic thanks to its excellent life-cycle assessment. Traditional plastics made from polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) have minimal CO2 emissions compared to many other materials.
The only problem is when it escapes into the open environment. Having avoided collection it cannot be recycled within a circular economy, creating microplastics that float around our oceans for decades. This is why we need to be using the innovative new plastics available - like Symphony's NbR resin - rather than the typical material we’ve been using for decades.
It’s available around the world today, including in the UK and US, and contains 20% less fossil-derived material that will quickly biodegrade if exposed to the open environment.
It’s no more expensive than traditional plastic and doesn’t require any special environmental conditions. To begin its decomposition all it needs is oxygen, which then converts the plastic into a biodegradable material.
Once that’s happened, bacteria and fungi biodegrade the material into CO2, water and humus - a type of nutrient rich soil that can be reused in agriculture.
Unfortunately, given the outright ban on plastics, these types of materials have often been thrown to the wayside - left to naturally biodegrade without consideration.
Where previous administrations have been difficult to engage with, resulting in them often being misinformed, it appears the Trump administration may be listening more closely.
The technology is supported by legislation around the world, and the US American Society for Testing and Materials (ATSM) has established a global standard for it.
These bodies ensure that materials are biodegradable and non-toxic. With this backing, the only thing standing in the way of its mass adoption is policy itself.
It’s a material that can keep both sides of the political divide happy whilst having a low impact on plastic manufacturing lines and dramatically reducing plastic’s burden on the environment.
We may not like to admit it, but President Trump may have just fired the starting pistol on sustainable plastic.
Michael Laurier is the CEO of environmental technology leaders Symphony Environmental.
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