Back to Plastic: Examining the Environmental Impact of Trump’s Executive Order in Chicago

For the past 20 years, Dr. Melissa Duhaime, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, has been working to reduce her personal use of plastic. After noticing the overwhelming amount of plastic in her fridge, including single-use items like milk cartons and yogurt tubs, she started making her own yogurt and visiting a local dairy that uses glass bottles. Duhaime’s goal is to combat plastic pollution on an individual level while studying ways to clean it up on a larger scale.

“I want to be part of some sort of system-level change that changes our relationship with plastic on a societal level and a human level,” said Dr. Duhaime.

Plastic straws have once again become a point of debate in light of President Donald Trump signing an executive order on Feb. 10 to reverse a policy put in place by the Biden-Harris administration aimed at phasing out single-use plastics. This decision will end the forced use of paper straws within federal buildings.

Samuel Morrissey, a first-year civil engineering student at Northwestern University, acknowledges that paper straws can be inconvenient because they become soggy after a few uses. However, he believes their use is important in signaling that the environment matters.

“Even though it doesn't have a huge effect when an individual chooses paper straws, it does still send a message that the environment is important to us,” Morrissey said. “I think the use of paper straws is an important signal.”

The White House’s statement emphasized that Trump’s order is “bringing back common sense” by restoring plastic straws, which they said were more functional than paper ones. It also criticized the previous administration’s stance on plastic straws as an “irrational campaign.”

Charity Blue, a professor at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability, believes this executive order might impact a few industries, especially food service operations that rely on straws. 

“For bigger companies, the signal it is sending to the people working in the space is that the government is not pro-environmental progress in some ways,” Blue said, pointing out that the focus on plastic straws is a broader reflection of the administration's dismissive approach to environmental management.

Blue serves as the Director of Product Management at Morningstar Sustainalytics, a company in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace that supports sustainable investing by providing ESG data to financial professionals and investors. Her expertise lies in corporate sustainability reporting, where she evaluates the company’s sustainability efforts and societal impacts, while also developing management practices and products for the corporate marketplace. She thinks that companies and the government should work together when it comes to reducing plastic waste. 

 “I think the truth of the matter is, the majority of gross domestic product (GDP) that is generated in the U.S. market is generated by corporations, so the responsibility does sit on these organizations to operationalize their work to solve these challenges,” Blue said. “If it just comes from nonprofits or the government, that accounts for a much smaller amount of what can actually be changed versus companies really strategizing behind themselves.”

The debate over plastic straws highlights the ongoing issue of single-use plastics and their environmental impact, particularly in cities like Chicago. According to the Rochester Institute of Technology, 22 million pounds of plastic pollution end up in the Great Lakes annually, with half of that entering Lake Michigan. As plastic waste breaks down into microplastics, it poses a threat to wildlife and ecosystems.

Dr. Duhaime, who has researched microplastics in the Great Lakes for the last decade, notes that plastic concentration is linked to population density. “The more people that are living in a place, the more microplastics you’ll find there,” she explained. 

Chicago, with its large population, is a major contributor to plastic pollution in Lake Michigan. A report by the City of Chicago indicated that waste generation increased over the past decade, with an estimated 4.13 million tons of waste accumulated in 2020 alone. 

The Illinois Environmental Council, which works on various environmental issues in the state, has been tackling single-use plastic pollution in Chicago. Tucker Barry, Chief Communications Officer for the IEC, said individuals can make a difference by advocating for policy changes.

“Knowing who your elected officials are, the decision-makers that represent you, and reaching out to them to ask them to support these policies is really what as individuals the most impactful thing you can do to reduce single-use plastic,” Barry said.

Public institutions throughout Chicago, such as the Shedd Aquarium, have developed educational programs to inform the public on the environmental harms of plastic pollution. Maggie Cooper has worked as the Manager of Conservation Action at the Shedd Aquarium for almost three years. In this role, she educates the general public on different conservation messaging and actions they can take and oversees programs that focus on mitigating pollution.

In 2017, the Shedd Aquarium led a campaign around Earth Day called SheddTheStraw, which focused on reducing the use and disposal of plastic straws in Chicago. Cooper mentioned that the campaign was based on all the single-use plastics they were finding at beach cleanups, with straws being one of the most common items that they were finding. Her ultimate goal is preventing the microplastics from entering our environment to begin with.

“We can do beach cleanups every single day, and as much fun as it is to be on the beach and as rewarding as it is to remove plastic from the beaches once it’s there, it’s getting into our environment,” Cooper said. “Our wildlife are mistaking it for food, we know that plastic holds onto toxins, and it’s contributing to some damage to our habitats for some of our wildlife, too.”

Fourth-year Northwestern student Isabel Toghramadjian, who is studying biology and data science, believes that while it’s important for consumers to avoid single-use plastics, companies must also make sustainable options available. 

“As consumers, you don't have much of a choice about what packaging or material of what you are buying is made out of,” Toghramadjian said.

As such, the Shedd Aquarium has been working closely with restaurants throughout Chicagoland to help them find meaningful and cost-effective ways to reduce plastic in their operations, according to Cooper. She said that one of the most important ways Chicago residents can combat plastic pollution in light of this recent policy shift is by supporting the businesses and industries that are making these changes, including restaurants that are operating fully reusable or plastic free.

“Being able to be supportive of them and help them know that those changes are seen and appreciated is vital because I think one of the biggest issues or one of the biggest limiting factors of restaurants switching to those things is the cost impact of them,” said Cooper. “Unfortunately, plastic is the cheapest and quickest way to be able to get some of those products.”

Dr. Duhaime said that whether it’s a plastic straw or plastic fork, any single-use throwaway item is seen as the convenient and familiar option for most people. She hopes that people start taking a different approach to the way they use plastic in their daily life while also reiterating that it’s not entirely the consumer’s fault.

“They are just the pawn that’s being expected to use the plastic,” said Dr. Duhaime. “The world has been redesigned for them to rely on plastic, and so in some ways, learning this reflexive, instinctive flinch and self questioning of ‘Is there anything else I can do to not have to use this plastic?’ helps us get to small acts of revolution and reclaim our power.”