Papers vs plastic straw? Environmental impact

Good question.

A Korean report going around has a surprising find: plastic straws are better for the environment vs paper straws.

The report is basically a "life-cycle assessment" of the environmental impact of paper vs plastic straws.

(Incidentally, I spent a term at the Nanyang Technology University in Singapore doing life-cycle assessments!)

So is the Korean report right? I did some digging.

Summary:

• It is true that plastics straws are better on some measures (vs paper straws) e.g. climate change impact.

• However, alternatives like wheat straws (which was not studied by the Korean report) are better.

• And paper straws still degrade much quicker than plastics (so they won't get eaten by turtles).

(Read on for the full details and sources!)

I couldn't find the actual report/study, but here's an accessible news coverage, which highlights some key findings from the Korean report:

• Conventional plastic straws had the smallest [environmental] impact in 10 of the 16 categories, including climate change, acidification, particulate matter and human toxicity.

• On carcinogenic impact – paper scored 6.33× (worse than) conventional plastic, biodegradable plastic 3.34× worse, and bio-PE 16.18× worse. (This is a measure of waste during the manufacturing process, not cancer risk to anyone using a straw.)

• Bio-PE was the worst overall and despite being plant-based, it does not biodegrade. ("Bio-PE is made from renewable plant-based sources such as sugarcane, but it is chemically identical to conventional polyethylene and does not biodegrade. It is distinct from biodegradable plastic.")

• Straws of every material are effectively unrecyclable. They are too small for sorting facilities, and coatings and adhesives get in the way.

To note, the Korean report is a government commissioned study. But we can find academic/peer-reviewed studies to compare – for example this 2025 study from Greece.

The findings (from the Greek study) are consistent with the Korean study (paper and bioplastics are worse), but it also included wheat straws (which fared better than plastics):

• Wheat straws had the lowest overall environmental impact and a climate-change result of 0.0568 kg CO2 equivalent per year.

• Plastic cost least, at €0.30 yearly, with a reported climate impact of 0.084 kg CO2 equivalent.

• Paper and bioplastic reached up to 2.5 times plastic’s climate impact.

• Washing accounted for about 85% of metal straws’ annual climate impact, around 0.169 kg CO2 equivalent.

One thing the Korean study didn't seem to highlight, is the relative biodegradability of the paper straws.

This 2024 study does, and reports that paper straws lost 25–50% of their mass in 16 weeks, while plastic straws showed no measurable mass loss.