Straws might seem insignificant, inspiring jokes about the plastic vs. paper debate, but the plastic straw has come to symbolize a global pollution crisis over the past decade.
On Monday, President Donald Trump waded into the issue when he signed an executive order to reverse a federal push away from plastic straws, declaring that paper straws “don’t work” and don’t last very long. Trump said he thinks “it’s OK” to continue using plastic straws, although they’ve have been blamed for polluting oceans and harming marine life.
In 2015, video of a marine biologist pulling a plastic straw out of a turtle’s nose sparked outrage worldwide and countries and cities started banning them, starting with the Pacific Island nation Vanuatu and Seattle in 2018.
Here’s what to know about the larger fight over single-use plastics in the United States:
What happens to plastic straws?