President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 10, directing government agencies to stop purchasing and distributing paper straws, while calling for a nationwide strategy to eliminate their forced use. Pomona College’s dining services and Bon Appétit, which manages three other colleges’ dining services, remain committed to sustainability efforts, maintaining that the order will not affect 5C dining.
In an effort to return to plastic straws, the order reverses former President Joe Biden’s plan to reduce single-use plastic products from all federal operations by 2035, which Trump’s order describes as “caving to pressure from woke activists who prioritize symbolism over science.”
Char Miller, an environmental analysis and history professor at Pomona, and Nikhil Schnieder, the assistant director of sustainability at Pomona, both called Trump’s executive order a way to “own the liberals” in separate interviews with TSL.
Miller said that he sees the executive order as more symbolic than effective. He said that since there is no budget to implement what the directives call for, it actually “[carries] no weight whatsoever.”
“They have no enforcement mechanism,” Miller said. “It is a statement of desire.”
Sean Diament, a politics professor at Pomona, also called the order symbolic, except for its potential influence in dining halls within federal buildings.
“The force of presidentially decreed law cannot compel you to buy plastic straws,” Diament wrote in an email to TSL.
Current policies surrounding plastic use at 5C dining facilities vary, since Bon Appétit manages Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College and Pitzer College’s dining services, while Harvey Mudd College and Pomona manage their own dining services.
In an email statement to TSL, Mark Gillera, a general manager from Bon Appétit, said that the company no longer provides plastic straws — an initiative that began in 2018 — except for people with “disabilities or access issues.”
At the three dining halls that the company manages, Gillera said that paper straws are provided under “certain circumstances.” The Hub at CMC offers them, while Collins Dining Hall only provides to-go cups.
“My colleagues and I have collaborated with a variety of stakeholders on our campuses, including student groups, to make great strides toward reducing or eliminating single-use plastic waste,” Gillera wrote.
Gillera added that Bon Appetit has no plans to change its policies, as the executive order applies only to government agencies.
Jose Martinez, the general manager of dining services at Pomona College, said that they have not yet discussed Trump’s order.
“This will not affect our services,” Martinez said in an interview with TSL. “If we make changes, it will be to further get us to the goal of carbon neutrality.”
Martinez said that Pomona’s dining halls do not typically provide straws, except for people with “medical restrictions.” These straws are made from agave and thus compostable. The only exception is when Pomona’s dining halls serve boba tea, which requires larger straws.
Unlike Bon Appétit, which has found a compostable alternative, Pomona is still actively searching for its own. Boba tea, however, is only on occasion, resulting in minimal plastic straw usage, Martinez said.
Over the past several years, Pomona has shifted to more sustainable practices, like no longer offering single-use to-go boxes, which Martinez attributes to “a very strong sustainability goal” rather than government directives.
Additionally, Schneider said that the Office of Sustainability has worked with Pomona’s dining services to make their operations more environmentally conscious, including creating improved signage to help students properly sort compost, trash and recyclables.
Schnieder said that despite some straws — paper included — and other items being labeled compostable, that might not always be the case, as compost facilities don’t actually want them.
“They’ve all been treated with chemicals to make them waterproof or hold up against grease and liquids, and those chemicals are not great to be putting into soil that you’re growing food in,” Schnieder said.
Harvey Mudd’s independently managed dining facilities offer plant-based plastic straws from the company Eco Products, whose website says that the straws are compostable and “compliant with many straw bans.” The college’s dining services did not respond to TSL’s request for comment.
Miller said that Trump’s executive order reflects his reluctance to work with Congress to pass legislation that could actually impact nationwide plastic use, reinforcing its symbolic nature.
“This is just feel-good legislation for those who care about the things [Trump] cares about,” Miller said. “It’s a fool’s errand and the president is clutching at straws.”
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