he declares paper ones 'don't work'

 Many multinational companies have moved away from plastic straws and have made reducing plastic use across their operations central to their sustainability goals, making Trump's decision an outlier in the business world.

 Plastic waste. /VCG

 Trump's order is "more about messaging than finding solutions," said Christy Leavitt, plastics campaign director for the environmental group Oceana, noting that most U.S. voters support requiring companies to reduce single-use plastic packaging and foodware.

 "President Trump is moving in the wrong direction on single-use plastics," Leavitt said. "The world is facing a plastic pollution crisis, and we can no longer ignore one of the biggest environmental threats facing our oceans and our planet today."

 Plastic pollution has been found on the surface of the sea, washing up on remote coastlines, melting out of Arctic sea ice and sitting at the deepest point of the ocean floor, Leavitt said. "It is everywhere."