Paper straws, purportedly eco-friendlier than plastic ones, have become the subject of a full review by the Korean government to determine their efficacy in protecting the environment. gettyimagesbank

The government will review the lifecycle of paper straws over disputes on their eco-friendliness, as other countries begin steering away from their use.

Its outcome will likely determine whether the government will continue promoting paper straws.

The review follows other governments and companies worldwide announcing their plans to go back to using plastic straws instead of paper straws, a turnaround from the trend that once favored paper straws for their purported eco-friendliness, over which researchers have not reached a consensus.

The Ministry of Environment said Thursday it will conduct a lifecycle assessment (LCA) on paper and plastic straws. It will examine how much environmental impact they carry throughout different stages of their lifecycle, such as production, consumption and disposal. It is expected to be completed in April.

The LCA comes after the government in 2021 revised the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources, announcing it would ban the use of plastic straws the following year.

Then in 2022, the ban was delayed to the year after. In 2023, the ban's enforcement was postponed indefinitely, effectively allowing the use of plastic straws again for the time being.

The ministry will also start benchmarking how other countries, particularly those in the European Union, regulate the use of plastic straws. It added it will look into how many paper straws have been used at the country's franchise businesses, which had signed an agreement with the government to opt for paper straws over plastic ones.

"Even experts share different opinions about whether paper straws are environmentally safer or not, confusing consumers and straw manufacturers," a ministry official said. "So it has prompted us to launch a comprehensive inspection over paper, plastic as well as other alternative straw materials to understand their chemical makeup and impacts on nature."

Over the past years, paper straws have lost popularity among companies and consumers globally as their purported eco-friendliness failed to compensate for plastic ones' environmental hazards.

It prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to order a return to using plastic straws in the U.S. federal government. Earlier this week, he signed an executive order to reverse federal purchasing policies that encourage purchasing paper straws and restrict plastic ones.

Trump's mandate came after the country's Environmental Protection Agency in 2020 said that paper straws emit 5.5 times more carbon emissions than plastic ones during production.

"It is a ridiculous situation. We are going back to plastic straws," Trump said as he signed the order, adding paper straws "do not work" and "do not last very long."

Starbucks in Japan this year announced it will provide customers with biodegradable plastic straws instead of paper ones starting this year. The measure came five years after it stopped providing plastic straws to patrons.

Germany's juice maker Capri-Sun said last year it was planning to bring back plastic straws for products in Switzerland where, unlike the EU, there is no ban on plastic straws.

With the Korean government's indecisive stance on paper straws, the volume of paper straw imports dropped to 401 tons from 919 tons in 2023, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

As of last year, nearly half of all domestic paper straw manufacturers closed their businesses as demands for paper straws declined.