A South Korean study found that paper straws may actually be more harmful to the environment than plastic ones, when taking into account their full life cycle from manufacturing to landfill. They also have more than six times the carcinogenic impact of traditional plastic straws. President Donald Trump ended the Biden Administration’s push for paper straws last year.
\n\nThe study’s findings undermine a lengthy environmental debate that spent a decade comparing plastic straws to toxic emissions, while seeking to replace them with paper tubes that collapse in people’s drinks.
\n\nSouth Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, evaluated four types of straws — conventional plastic, paper, biodegradable plastic, and bio-based polyethylene — and their life-cycles in 16 different environmental categories.
\n\nConventional plastic straws had the smallest environmental impact in 10 of the 16 categories, including climate change, human toxicity, particulate matter, and acidification.
\n\nPaper straws, meanwhile, had 6.33 times the carcinogenic impact of standard plastic straws, plus twice as much impact on acidifying the environment, according to the study.
\n\nMeanwhile, biodegradable plastic straws had 3.34 times the carcinogenic impact and 1.98 times the acidification impact of conventional plastic straws, the study found.
\n\nAs for bio-based polyethylene straws — made from…
Original source: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/
