Let’s follow The Science on plastic straws, then?
After all those good intentions and smug lectures the awful truth comes out. A Korean study has found that out of four different kinds of straws, good old plastic straws had the lowest environmental footprint in 10 of 16 categories. Despite being made from fossil fuels, plastic straws had the lowest carbon footprint and incidentally, were also the least harmful to humans. Paper straws had six times the level of carcinogenic impact and caused twice the level of acidification. Straws made from sugarcane were even worse — and had what was described as sixteen times the level of carcinogens and caused six times the acidification in oceans and soils. Interestingly, at the end of life straws were almost never recycled. Even when people put the straws in the recycling bins, they slipped through the sorting equipment at the plant.
South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment compared four types of straws — paper, plastic, biodegradable plastic, and sugarcane-based. Of the four types, the type of straws made from fossil fuels were, with a brutal irony, the ones with the lowest carbon footprint. Plant based ‘plastics’ sound really swell, but someone has to clear the ground, fertilize the field, grow the crop, harvest it, and transport bulky plants to a factory. And after that comes the games in a chemical soup.
h/t to ClimateDepot
Paper straws worse for the environment than plastic ones: study
— By Faran Krentci, New York Post
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.
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.
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).
Donald Trump brought back plastic straws in March last year driving the eco-Worriers crazy. It was one of the first things he did.
God’s joke on Greenpeace is that Trump is more environmentally friendly than they are.
Naturally, now that The Science is in, Greenpeace will admit it with grace and campaign to bring back plastic straws, right?
Paper Straws Show 6.33 Times Higher Carcinogenic Potential Than Plastic Straws in Health and Environmental Impact Study
By Choi Ji Woo, Health Chosun
The analysis found that paper straws had a carcinogenic potential 6.33 times higher than that of standard plastic straws. Their environmental impact was also greater. Compared with standard plastic straws, paper straws had a 2.04 times higher risk of environmental acidification, a 1.62 times greater impact on fine particulate matter and a 2.23 times greater impact on ozone layer depletion. By contrast, standard plastic straws had the greatest environmental impact only in the category of fossil fuel resource depletion and had the lowest impact in the remaining 10 categories.
The worst straws of all are probably those called “Bio-PE”. These are the plant based plastic straws which produce the exact same polyethylene used in the fossil fuel plastic straws, but take more resources to produce something just as un-biodegradable.
Straws made of bio-based polyethylene were found to have the most negative impacts on health and the environment. Although bio-based polyethylene is made from plant-based raw materials such as sugarcane, it is chemically similar to conventional polyethylene and is not biodegradable. Compared with standard plastic straws, it had a 16.18 times higher carcinogenic potential and a 12.02 times greater impact on fine particulate matter, while having the greatest environmental impact in 10 categories, including climate change and ozone layer depletion.
In 2023 we found out the paper straws have more ‘forever chemicals’ than plastic straws. While plastic straws have the teflon style (PFAS) ‘forever chemicals’ — the paper straws had even more of them. Some researchers wondered (politely) if this was due to contamination, other suggested that since the chemicals were found in 90% of paper straws they probably had a role in keeping the paper straws “waterproof”.
The full story of course, is that carbon emissions are a good thing, not a pollutant, but nobody wants turtles and birds swimming in plastic waste. But paper straws dosed with PFAS hardly sound like a turtle friendly food either, so the solution is to discourage people from throwing all kinds of plastics (not just straws) in the ocean in the first place.
In the long run, life on Earth will figure out a way to use all the free organic energy lying around in plastic waste. Indeed, plastic-eating bacteria have already evolved to eat our PET bottles and spread through global oceans. It’s just a matter of time before they figure out the rest of the plastic panoply.
LATE NOTE: And who did the plastic straw ban hurt the most — the disabled. As long ago as 2018 disability groups were asking for a pause on the plastic straw ban. They need the flexible 90° bends that plastic straws offer, and sometimes need to consume hotter drinks than paper or biogradable straws will handle. Not to mention that coping with “reusable” straws which are hard for them to clean may pose infection risks.
This article originally appeared at JoNova
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The post Looks like to save the environment we need to bring back plastic straws was first published by the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and is republished here with permission. Please support their efforts.
