A lot has happened in the world of plastics recently – namely President Trump’s announcement that America is going “BACK TO PLASTIC!” and his subsequent Executive Order reversing the Biden Administration’s ban on plastic straws.
I recently joined The Briefing with Ed Henry on Newsmax2 to discuss the executive order, plastic’s utility in our everyday lives, and the future of plastics in America. Here are my takes:
On the state of plastics manufacturing in the U.S. and the President’s executive order:
“Look, it’s been a tough few years for our industry here in the U.S. It could be so much better. The last four years have driven a lot of our manufacturing out of the country, and it’s time to bring it back. This is an industry that is one of the largest industrial sectors in the United States. We benefit from extremely low energy prices, which is a building block of what we do here, and policies were standing in the way of us really being the dominant producer here in the U.S. and exporting that to the rest of the world. We’re excited that the President has recognized the important role plastics play in everyday life. And it’s go time! We’re happy that we’re open for business.”
On the importance of plastics in everyday life:
“Straws are one example of why plastic is so important, but plastics are in everything. They are the building blocks for just about everything we do: our car; my iPhone that I carry around; your food safe packaging that’s keeping the food safe for your consumption; your health care needs, the blood bags and the IV drips; it’s throughout your home, the insulation, your windows, things like that. It’s in everything that we use, and it’s there for a reason. It’s there because you can typically make more with less, it performs extremely well, and we use it for so many things.”
On the future of plastics manufacturing under the Trump Administration:
“So, we are excited about the possibility that we can continue to do this [manufacture plastics] here and continue to do it better than anywhere else…And so, we’re hoping that this administration unlocks those policies so that we can make it here better, and we can recycle it here better.”
On our global industry’s commitment to address microplastics:
“We agree this is a concern. We need to do our research and figure out exactly what the risks and the exposures are of microplastics. We as an industry have committed $15 million to figuring that out. We also think there is a really important role for the federal government to continue to look into this and continue to figure this out. At the end of the day, we believe our products are safe for everyday consumers. There are plenty of laws that enforce that. We think it’s worth using those laws to determine and confirm for the public what we already know, which is that our products are safe for us to use.”
Ross Eisenberg
President
America’s Plastic Makers TM
