Who receives the last straw award?

Cynical Opportunism

And the straw-shaped trophy goes to an unseen talent in cynical opportunism category, who didn’t just play the game — he rewrote the rules. Donald Trump stormed ahead of the competition with a stroke of marketing genius: turning single-use plastics into single-use politics.

In 2019, while the world debated bans, he cashed in by selling red “Trump-branded” straws for $15 a pack — complete with the tagline, “Liberal paper straws don’t work.” Extra creative: mock the regulation, profit from the pollution, and rally a base around the right to sip.

But he didn’t stop there. In 2025, as president again, he signed Executive Order 14208, forcing federal agencies to abandon paper straws entirely. Suddenly the mockery became policy: plastic wasn’t just merch, it was mandated. From campaign shop to Oval Office, Trump proved that in America, you can take a punchline and turn it into national strategy.

At this year’s Ars Electronica, the installation Sweet Dreams by Marshmallow Laser Feast introduced a peculiar little prize: The Last Straw Award. A tongue-in-cheek trophy with a deadly serious question: if the world had to crown champions of plastic failure, who would win?

So I looked into the data, and put the countries into the race in three categories. The competition was fierce. The results? Equal parts absurd and depressing.

Biggest Blocker

And now for the award that celebrates the fine art of saying no while pretending to negotiate. The clear winner: Saudi Arabia.

In Geneva, the kingdom perfected obstruction as performance, refusing to even let the word production cross the treaty text. Why talk about making less plastic when you can talk forever about recycling? A standing ovation for consistency — blocking caps on virgin plastic while expanding petrochemical investments at home.

A close runner-up, the United States, added some flair: straws in one hand, sovereignty in the other, vetoing ambition at every turn. And let’s not forget Russia, always eager to lend support to a stalemate. Together they turned a historic chance into a historic shrug. Truly, a masterclass in making sure nothing changes while the plastic tide keeps rising.

Most Wasteful Exporter Award

And the golden garbage trophy goes jointly to Spain, Japan, Australia, and the United States — four nations who have perfected the art of shipping their plastic headaches abroad.

Spain funnels its overflow across the Mediterranean, Japan tops the charts by sending two-thirds of OECD’s non-OECD exports to Asia, Australia proudly bans exports at home while still sneaking 61 million kilos overseas, and the U.S., ever the exceptionalist, simply skips the Basel Convention altogether and keeps the cargo flowing.

Together they prove that when it comes to waste, nothing is easier than exporting both the problem and the responsibility.

🏆 The Last Straw Award is, of course, satire — but the stakes are real. Every blocked treaty, every exported bale, every cynical stunt makes the plastic crisis harder to solve. The only real prize left is whether we decide to change the rules of the game before the tide of waste buries us all.

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