Trump’s order on paper straws worries local manufacturer

Last month, President Donald Trump ended the procurement and offering of paper straws at federal agencies through an executive order. While signing the order, he claimed, “On occasion, they break, they explode.”

Karrie Laughton, co-owner of Roc Paper Straws, was shocked by the news, learning about it in real-time while at a staff lunch meeting for her paper straw manufacturing company.

“I did not see it coming. It was completely out of left field, definitely not on my bingo card for 2025. There are so many bigger fish to fry and this is what you’re spending time on?” she recalls thinking. “To hear him say, ‘Just go back to plastic,’ it was like a punch to the gut.”

The announcement reverses the course of former President Joe Biden, who ordered a gradual end to the government’s purchasing of plastic straws, cutlery, and packaging in 2024.

While Laughton does not have any contracts with federal government agencies, she is still worried about what it means for Roc Paper Straws, a local business and one of the few paper straw manufacturers based in the U.S. She is concerned about attitudes toward environmentally conscious decisions.

“It sends a very negative message about paper straws in general,” she observes. “It just gives a green flag to say ‘Eh, don’t really worry about that, just go back to what you were doing.’ Which is really frustrating.”

Laughton started ROC Paper Straws with her mother in 2022 as a way to fight against the waste and environmental damage of single-use plastics. The owner of South Wedge neighborhood bar, Lux Lounge, Laughton considered how many straws her bar was using after viewing a graphic video of a scientist removing a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s nose.

Due to their small size, plastic straws represent a unique, and particular, danger to waterways and animals. A 2023 report from the environmental group, Ocean Conservancy, found that over 400,000 straws were cleaned up along U.S. coasts, among the top 10 items collected that year.

It also has made its way into the human body.

“We are turning into plastic because we are ingesting it every single day from very many places. And the thing with plastic is it never ever goes away. That’s terrifying,” says Laughton. “So they shouldn’t be anywhere near our mouths. We shouldn’t be eating with them, we shouldn’t be using straws, plastic silverware. You have to be careful with the containers that takeout comes in because when (plastic) is hot, it releases more toxic chemicals into your food.”

Undeniably, the amount of micro- or nano-plastics in human bodies has increased and science demonstrates it also travels through the air. The material’s effect on humans is not as well understood but has become a hot topic of research in recent years. Laughton herself keeps in touch with researchers from the Lake Ontario MicroPlastics Center

While simply one component of this issue, plastic straws are a ubiquitous part of modern-day consumption. Regardless of the challenge of determining the exact number of plastic straws used in the U.S., their production is a large business.

A 2023 analysis from Freedonia Group found that disposable straws were a $553 million industry in the U.S. Following a drop in consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group forecasts a 1.5 percent annual growth rate to $597 million in 2027.

The report also noted that demand for alternative materials, such as paper, is on the rise. It predicts that paper straws could make up as much as 37 percent of all demand in 2032, higher than 13 percent in 2022.

Beyond the reputation of falling apart too quickly in liquid, paper straws have faced their own environmentally based critiques. A 2023 study found that 90 percent of paper straws tested contained “forever chemicals” (perfluoroalkyl substances, PFAs) from materials to make them more water resistant. The manufacturing process can also contribute to deforestation or increase fossil fuel consumption.

Laughton is aware of those criticisms and says most of those concerns are associated with inferior products from overseas.

“Most of the paper straws that people are getting that are lousy and don’t last through ten minutes before falling apart and being unusable, those are being imported from China,” she says.

Roc Paper Straws spent time on each of those issues, Laughton says. Its process is eco-friendly, with paper being sourced through a sustainable forestry company. The straw material is stronger than other products, does not utilize PFAs, and is USDA biobased certified, meaning it has a verified amount of renewable biological ingredients, she notes. 

While the company has not seen an impact on sales so far, Laughton says already tight margins could grow even tighter for the relatively new business, which has six employees. Staying afloat at its current location on Exchange Street in the PLEX neighborhood is the company’s primary concern right now.

Laughton says that changing attitudes is important in this work and that the most recent executive order can destroy the progress made. Her hope is that people will educate themselves and make environmentally conscious decisions for the future.

She suggests consumers carry paper straws around with them in bags, purses, or cars. Anything that can make it more convenient and easier to decline a plastic straw when it is offered.

“Paper straws are not going to save us. They’re not the answer that’s going to solve climate change and all that stuff. But it is still a small portion,” observes Laughton. “And if a bunch of other people are doing their small portion, big things can happen.”

“There’s so much noise and information out there that people feel overwhelmed and it can get daunting. I just don’t want people to be like ‘One little straw, that’s not going to make a big difference.’ It does. It adds up all the time.”

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist. 

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