A South Korean study found that paper straws may actually be more harmful to the environment than plastic straws, considering their entire life cycle from manufacturing to landfill. They are more than six times more likely to cause cancer than traditional plastic straws. President Donald Trump ended the Biden administration’s push for paper straws last year.
The study’s findings undermine a long environmental debate that has spent a decade comparing plastic straws to toxic emissions while seeking to replace them with paper tubes that collapse in people’s drinks.
South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment evaluated four types of straws – traditional plastic, paper, biodegradable plastic and bio-based polyethylene – and their life cycles in 16 different environmental categories.
Traditional plastic straws have the lowest environmental impact in 10 of 16 categories, including climate change, human toxicity, particulate matter and acidification.
At the same time, research shows that paper straws are 6.33 times more carcinogenic than standard plastic straws, and the impact of acidified environments is also twice that of standard plastic straws.
At the same time, the study found that the carcinogenic impact of biodegradable plastic straws is 3.34 times that of traditional plastic straws, and the acidification impact is 1.98 times that of traditional plastic straws.
As for bio-based polyethylene straws made from renewable materials such as sugar cane, they are 16 times more likely to cause cancer than traditional plastic straws and cause six times more acidification damage, a measure of changes in ocean and soil pH.
While some may think that paper straws are more popular because they are recyclable, research shows this is not the case because paper straws are so small that they often pass through facility sorting machines and almost none of them are recycled.
Additionally, because paper straws have a waterproof coating and industrial glue, they are difficult to break down and therefore require more energy to process, meaning microplastics can still find their way into recycled materials.
According to a report in South Korea’s National Assembly, “the government must admit the failure of its ‘greenwashing’ policy, which focused on ineffective alternative materials.” new york post.
President Donald Trump questioned why liberal cities banned plastic straws in 2019, saying, “I do think we have a bigger problem than plastic straws,” Breitbart News reported.
Last year, President Trump signed an executive order ending the Biden administration’s push to use paper straws and directing the federal government to return to using plastic straws.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and @ARmastrangeloand on Instagram.