Public to get chance to weigh in on plastic vs. paper straws under proposed Trump administration rule

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/GMA

July 18, 2025, 5:40 PM


Members of the general public will have a chance to weigh in on the use of paper versus plastic straws as the federal government considers a new rule on the types of straws used by government contractors.

Under the rule proposed by the Trump administration, every federal government contractor -- including those serving military bases and veterans facilities -- would have to offer only straws that "have the strength and durability of plastic straws."

Government contractors would, under the rule, have to attest that they don't use paper straws in their business and promise not to penalize the use of plastic ones.

The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on July 21. Once it is published, the general public has 60 days to submit comments on the rule at Regulations.gov, the federal eRulemaking portal.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/public-chance-weigh-plastic-paper-straws-proposed-trump/story?id=123875519

[Irish_Dem]

1. There is no matter too small for Trump to harass Americans with.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Wow, accepting public input on straws, but not for ending USAid or Voice of America

or PBS or anything of real importance.

[modrepub]

3. How About No Straws?

Never use them, or the plastic cup lids. Having been a field inspector at a landfill just made me want to use less stuff that eventually would find its way into these spaces.

[travelingthrulife]

7. This. The only time I ever use straws is if I have some sort of oral injury or dental work.

Why do people use them? It is like people thinking they have to drink soda which results in endless cans and plastic bottles.

[WestMichRad]

10. Why do people use them?

I, for one, have cold sensitive teeth. Using a straw helps keep cold liquids away from the more sensitive spots. And I absolutely must use a straw with smoothies (that cold sensitive thing again). So hell yes, I almost always use straws.

I have metal straws and heavy duty plastic straws that I regularly wash and reuse. Try my best to avoid disposable straws. Have even been known to bring my own straw into restaurants.

So yet again I’m in the minority… and will defend the use of straws.

And what else ya gonna use when you want to snort… uh, say, some powdery stuff, and ya don’t have a Benjamin in yr pocket?

[rickford66]

4. He even said, paper straws melt !

What fool would use any straw on a drink so hot it melted a paper one ? That's a prescription for a burn.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. I remember as a kid

so many places used thick paper straws. Then a fad started with the "Krazy Straw" -

And after that, plastic straws seemed to proliferate - particularly the ones that could "bend" (had an accordion-like articulation).

[Igel]

13. Paper doesn't melt from heat.

Get it hotter and hotter it just starts to carbonize and combust.

It gets soggy, like if you have a cardboard box holding something weighing more than maybe a pound in the rain and then try to pick it up.

If you put it in a drink, don't let it sit too long unless the straw's really thick or waxed/plastic-coated. Cheap straws when I was a kid, if I left a drink to go swim or do something and come back I'd get another because the first would collapse when I tried to suck up more liquid. Learned to pretty much hate straws.

[travelingthrulife]

6. Seriously??? We aren't allowed to weigh in on anything else, but straws...that is really important

to get the pulse of America on that.

[louis-t]

8. Y'know, WHO FUCKING CARES?

What a waste of time. Distract, distract, distract. Jeez.

[ToxMarz]

9. Great, how is it I have been able to thrive so long

Not using a straw AT ALL!

[FakeNoose]

11. Most Americans under the age of 50 have never seen or used a paper straw

Plastic straws can be washed and stored for re-use, while paper straws are only for one-time use. Plastic straws that get thrown away are never recycled, and therefore they end up in the landfills forever. The cost of making making paper straws is about one-tenth the cost of making plastic straws, so why are they so expensive and so hard to find?

[Hekate]

14. Funny thing is, being well over 50 I actually remember paper straws. They did not come apart in use...

They had a smooth coating, that given the time period, would have been wax and not plastic. The smooth coating was not only a short-term water-proofing, but gave the straws a comfortable mouth-feel. They did not taste of anything. Then they disappeared from the market. If no one has reported unearthing 70 year old paper straws from the landfills, you can be pretty sure it’s because they decayed.

Decades later I saw a program about the damage plastic straws do to ocean wildlife, and it was graphic and sickening (iterations of getting stuck in nostrils and blowholes and causing agonizing death) .

I seriously wanted paper straws back, but when I finally found a box they were quite expensive, and turned out to have a taste and mouth-feel that was, well, it was unacceptable to this customer. It was like the modern manufacturer went all literal on the idea of paper without considering what else was needed. They actually did come apart during normal and expected use, and the paper-texture was gritty on the tongue.

I re-use plastic straws as long as I can clean them, but only recently did I find a tiny cleaning brush made for the purpose. So yes.

Good news is that some restaurants have recently found a better grade of paper straws. It started with our local organic restaurant and has been spreading bit by bit. The Chinese restaurant has them now.

Only two further observations: one is that if I can’t use straws at all I will have a life of tepid beverages, because my teeth hurt. Second is that trump is an idiot who likes to waste our time and our money while distracting us.

[FakeNoose]

16. Great observations and I totally agree!

It was the plastics manufacturers that created the phony ruckus about paper-vs.-plastic back in the late 60's and early 70s. Before that, nobody cared and nobody thought about it. Wax-coated paper straws were fine for our parents and grandparents. They were cheap and plentiful and there was no problem with them going to the landfills either. It was a very quick disintegration back to the soil, and no harm to animals.

Now here we are, it's 2025 and we're looking back on 50+ years of misinformation from the plastics industry.

I'm 74 and I would have no problem with going back to paper straws. Even though they aren't ideal for my morning coffee, I don't care!

[SickOfTheOnePct]

15. Probably because...

...many, if not most, straw users hate paper straws.

[Karasu]

17. In case anyone somehow doesn't get why the regime is making this a thing...it's not about convenience or what

"the public" prefers. They are doing what modern conservatives always do and trying to normalize a new debate to shape the narrative the way they want it to be shaped. Just like they do with public health policy (see RFK's fucking insane HHS). In short, they want to make short-sighted anti-environmental policy to still be seen as a legitimate point of view, even as the climate crisis intensifies. It's a direct extension of the normalization of climate change denial in the public sphere.

They have and continue to put a great deal of time, energy, and money into dismantling environmental regulations, because they and their donors have a strong vested interest in perpetually maintaining the corporate status quo of dumping untenable amounts of plastic into the ocean. Their strong push for only plastic straws is just another conservative way of saying "fuck you" to the so-called "green agenda" and an attempt to assure that our unsustainable system stays exactly as is for the foreseeable future. Simply to maximize corporate profit, as with everything they do. It's just more late-stage capitalist BS.

That's literally all there is to it.

[WestMichRad]

18. This reminds me of...

His Oraneness getting his diaper in a wad over energy efficient light bulbs… and low flush toilets. It’s all just attention distracting bullshit.

And if they can get pokes in at liberals, so much the better, from their perspective.

[Karasu]

19. Yep. Hell, during his first term, he literally issued a fucking executive order to change the water flow of showerheads

because he wasn't getting "wet enough" in the shower.

His words, not mine.

Note: Turns out Biden reversed it, but--sure enough--the regime reinstated it back in April of this year. Fascist priorities for you.

[BigmanPigman]

20. I am still haunted by my Kindergarten teacher yelling at me

when my paper straw had a tiny hole and milk was all over the table. A friend who was in that class with me still remembers the incident, too. When the evil teacher left the room and the milk leaked all the of the 5 year olds got their napkins to help clean it up before she returned. They knew she would be unfair and she was. I taught 1st grade for almost 20 years and in CA teachers are NOT allowed to do that. The teacher should have been fired. My friend remembers how this monster made her embarrassed in front of the whole class. Mrs. Ares, if you're out there and read this I hope you drop dead ASAP!

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. FWIW, McDonald's straws melt in their coffee

I sometime's pick up a coffee in their drive thru. Just $1 on their app and it's pretty decent. I ask for a straw because it's easier to drink from while I'm driving. I've learned to wait 5 minutes or so to put the straw in though, because their coffee is so hot it WELDS the sides of the straw together. Needless to say, it's also too hot to drink!