Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 11, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 26, 2026
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Trump's executive order encourages plastic straw use, opposing global bans on single-use plastics, reversing prior environmental policies.
President Donald Trump in a new executive order inked on Monday encouraged the U.S. government and consumers to purchase plastic drinking straws at a time when several countries have issued a ban on non-biodegradable single-use plastics.
The new order backtracks on Biden administration's efforts to lower consumption of such plastics, which damage ecosystems and contaminate food supplies, as well as a policy to end the use of all single-use plastic products on federal lands by 2032.
Following is the list of countries that have imposed bans on single-use plastics after the United Nations on World Environment Day in 2018, called for "biggest-ever worldwide cleanup" of plastic pollution:
Country | Date of ban announcement | Related articles |
Nigeria | June 26, 2024 | Nigeria's ban on single-use plastics, which was announced and started with government offices last year, expanded nation-wide in January. |
India | July 1, 2022 | India imposed a ban on single-use plastics on items ranging from straws to cigarette packs. |
Chile | February 2022 | Chile phases out use of plastic cups, straws, takeout container, and more after a law regulating the single-use plastics enters into force. |
France | 2021 | France banned plastic straws, cups, cutlery and styrofoam takeaway boxes from 2021. |
England | October 1, 2020 | England's ban on supplying plastic straws, stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds was imposed in 2020. |
Kenya | June 2020 | Kenya imposed toughest laws against plastic bags in 2017. It announced ban on plastic items including straws, as per Associated Press. |
Bangladesh | January 2020 | Bangladesh's High Court ordered the government to ban single-use plastics in coastal areas, hotels and restaurants. |
China | 2020 | China unveiled its plans to ban use of plastics, including single-use straws by the end of 2020, according to BBC News. |
Vancouver, Canada | November 28, 2019 | Vancouver was one of the first major Canadian cities to enact a wide-reaching ban on the use of plastic straws and bags. It was imposed from April 2020. |
Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, United States | 2019 | Some cities in the U.S. had proposed or enacted plastic straw bans and restrictions. |
Tanzania | July 2019 | Tanzania banned single-use plastics. |
Taiwan | July 2019 | Taiwan initiated its first stage ban on single-use plastic straws, as per Taiwan News. |
Queensland, Australia | July 2018 | A few Australian states including Queensland banned the use of single-use plastics which further added plastic straws, according to Queensland government's website. |
Source: Media reports
(Reporting by Anuja Bharat Mistry in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
Trump's executive order encouraged the U.S. government and consumers to purchase plastic drinking straws.
The new order backtracks on the Biden administration's efforts to reduce plastic consumption and end the use of single-use plastics.
The order defies the global trend of countries imposing bans on single-use plastics, which have been implemented to protect ecosystems.
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