Huh: Study Shows Paper Straws Are Bad For The Environment

So, this means that the Enviroweenies/Warmists will make Everyone Else use metal ones

Paper straws worse for the environment than plastic ones: study

This scientific study might be the last straw.

A damning study out of South Korea has revealed that paper straws might actually be worse for the planet than plastic ones, especially when their life cycle is traced from the factory floor to the landfill.

The findings suck the air out of some long-winded environmental protests, which claimed for a decade that plastic straws were on par with toxic fumes or forest fires — and fought to make iced lattes nearly impossible to drink through a soggy, wilted tube of cardboard.

The research comes from South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, which analyzed four types of straws — paper, plastic, biodegradable plastic, and sugarcane-based — across 16 environmental categories.

Traditional plastic straws showed the lowest environmental footprint in 10 of the 16 categories, including human toxicity, particulate matter, and overall climate change impact.

Meanwhile, paper straws were found to generate over six times more carcinogens than standard plastic, along with double the impact on environmental acidification.

OK, so what about the others?

As for “Bio-PE” straws — the kind made from renewable sources like sugarcane — they produced 16 times the carcinogenic impact of standard plastic straws, along with six times the acidification damage (the metric scientists use to measure changes in ocean and soil pH levels).

And, whoops, paper straws rarely get recycled. And paper straws often do not degrade well, either.

Confronted with the findings, South Korean lawmaker Kim Wi-sang criticized domestic environmental groups and his own government for prioritizing feel-good narratives over hard science.

Is it feel good stuff or just cult business? Not that I think plastic straws are great for real environmental concerns, such as ocean and land pollution, but, the alternatives that they force on people aren’t the best, either.