Paper or plastic? White House strategy on straws raises eyebrows in Wisconsin

Jul 01, 2025

In late March, the White House released a 36-page national strategy document further outlining an executive order President Donald Trump signed in February which ended the federal procurement and provision of paper straws.

“They are bad for the environment, they are unhygienic, they are expensive, they contain dangerous forever chemicals, and — as with most things advanced by the previous Administration — they do not work,” said the president in the document published on March 28, 2025.

The plastics industry welcomed the policy reversing the Biden Administration’s plan to phase out all single-use plastics across the federal government.

“Straws are just the beginning, ‘Back to Plastic’ is a movement we should all get behind,” said Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, in a statement, following the executive order.

Among all the claims against paper straws in the document, the White House highlighted the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals” in paper straws, posing a ‘genuine’ risk to human health.

These chemicals belong to a large group of synthetic, human-made chemicals known for their resistance to grease, water, and high temperatures. They are widely used in coatings and surfaces of non-stick cookware, grease-proof food packaging, outdoor clothing, waterproof cosmetics, and stain-resistant carpets and furniture.

Wisconsin paper manufacturers and trade groups were surprised by the swing the Trump administration took at their products.

“Our industry voluntarily moved away from PFAS a number of years ago. And we’re way ahead of the curve in terms of having looked at alternatives to those types of compounds,” said Scott Suder, president of the Wisconsin Paper Council, a Madison-based advocacy organization.

While PFAS poses serious risks to human health and environmental safety, critics say the White House is misplacing blame, arguing that paper straws, despite their growing use, represent a negligible source of contamination.

“That’s a really odd thing to take,” said Professor Graham Peaslee, a leading scholar on PFAS in consumer goods at the University of Notre Dame. “I’m glad they’re going after PFAS, but this is the wrong place to be looking for it. They’re looking for easy wins that everybody loves to hate.”

This debate raises a lot of questions about the controversy over paper and plastic straws. Here is what to know:

Yes, but it’s complicated.

Two separate academic papers have tested PFAS in paper straws and were cited by the White House.

The first is a 2021 study by the University of Florida which measured PFAS levels in 43 different brands of drinking straws, including five plastics, 29 paper, and nine other plant-based varieties.

Researchers found PFAS in 28 types of paper straws and seven plant-based ones, while “no measurable PFAS” were detected in plastic ones.

The second study, from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, was published in 2023 and also found PFAS in most samples of tested paper straws.

It analyzed 39 brands of drinking straws in the Belgian market, made from five materials: 20 paper straws, five bamboo straws, five made of glass, five made from stainless steel, and four plastic ones.

Researchers found PFAS in most of the samples they tested, with the highest levels detected in paper straws (90%) and bamboo straws (80%). In contrast, no PFAS were detected in stainless steel straws.

While both studies found low PFAS concentrations in paper straws, their findings diverged in one key aspect. Unlike the Florida study, the Belgian study detected PFAS in three out of four plastic straw brands.

Thimo Groffen, researcher and co-author of the Belgian study, told the Appleton Post-Crescent in a statement that the discrepancy likely comes from differences in manufacturing processes, indicating that plastics are not automatically PFAS-free. Groffen said that PFAS can unintentionally end up in plastic products, even though they’re not deliberately added.

While PFAS were found in paper straws, the concentration was extremely low, ranging from 0.043 nanograms per straw to 29.1 nanograms, with a median value of 0.554 nanograms per straw.

Peaslee, who has tested PFAS levels in straws, food packaging, and textiles, along with a wide range of consumer products, said the concentration per straw in the study is minuscule.

“They’re measuring a few parts per billion. It wouldn’t even be on my radar. It’s 200,000 times lower than what I would measure,” he said. “With such low concentration, it reflects the unintentional use.”

He said the intentional PFAS use across the paper industry has been largely resolved.

U.S. regulations have tightened over the past few years. In 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration initiated a voluntary phase-out of certain PFAS used in grease-proofing food-contact materials, including those used in paper straws.

In January, the FDA formally removed authorization for 35 PFAS-based substances, citing that manufacturers had already stopped producing or using them. This, as a result, eliminated their presence in U.S. food packaging materials.

Several Wisconsin specialty paper manufacturers told The Post-Crescent their paper products comply with the FDA regulations on PFAS in food packaging materials. They also said they do not intentionally add PFAS during manufacturing.

Ahlstrom, a Finnish supplier of specialty paper for paper straws and food packaging, owns five paper mills in the state, including the historic Thilmany mill in Kaukauna.

Tricia Schwartz, spokeswoman of Ahlstrom, said in a statement that the company does not add PFAS to the paper base it produces for customers who convert it into straws. Schwartz said their other food-contact papers, such as restaurant wraps, microwave popcorn bags, and pet food packaging papers, also meet FDA requirements for direct food contact.

But Peaslee said contamination can still occur through supply chains, particularly when PFAS-treated recycled materials are involved. But he remains optimistic: “Once PFAS is gone from paper, recycled products will be cleaning up in a couple of years.”

The Wisconsin paper industry spans the full supply chain, from base paper production to the conversion into finished products like paper straws, including small-sized converters like Cloveridge Converting in De Pere, which was in the process of adding a line of paper straws when the White House's strategy was released.

Hoffmaster Group, a leading U.S. manufacturer of premium disposable tableware based in Oshkosh, has been a major player in driving the market growth. The group acquired Aardvark Straws in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 2018.

Market data suggests consumer demand for paper straws remains strong and poised for continued growth. A report by Future Market Insights estimates that Aardvark Straws held an estimated 18 to 22% of the global paper straws market as of 2023 and projects a 7% annual growth through 2035.

In May, the company filed a WARN notice with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development and plans to close the Fort Wayne by November this year, but says the move serves a broader aim to improve operational efficiency. Emphasizing Aardvark paper straws remains a "key focus," CEO Craig Cappel said in a statement that the company will be relocating its paper straw machinery to its Oconto plant in Wisconsin.

Mark Hunter, director of technology and innovation at Hoffmaster, told The Post-Crescent in late February at a paper industry-focused exhibition that it’s too early to tell how the executive order will affect their paper straw sales. But Hunter said the executive order carries significant negative connotations toward paper straws, as many people are influenced by what the president says.

The national anti-paper straws policy claims that paper straws pose health risks, affecting reproductive health, developmental delays in children, cancer and other dangerous health conditions. Peaslee pushed back.

He said paper straws contain only a very small amount of PFAS to start with, and then drinking through one likely exposes you to only a tiny fraction of that, as little as a millionth of a nanogram of PFAS, which can be considered “negligible.”

“If you ate ten paper straws with a meal, and you consumed them and swallowed them, then that could be an appreciable quantity that you’re getting into your system,” he said. “But even then, it’s not a lot.”

But not all researchers share the same level of confidence. Groffen takes a more cautious view of paper straws, warning that even low-level exposure accumulates in human bodies and causes “toxic effects,” despite occasional uses.

“The risks associated with PFAS in paper straws are very minor,” he said. “The PFAS concentrations, if they would migrate to the drinks, would be a minor exposure route to humans.”

Many Americans are drinking water with PFAS levels far higher than what they’d be exposed to by eating 10 paper straws per day. In 2022, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tested tap water at 40 homes across Wisconsin connected to public water systems and found 12, or 30%, had PFAS chemical levels over federally recommended limits, above 4 parts per trillion.

Wisconsin implemented standards at 70 parts per trillion in drinking water in 2022 and a requirement for routine testing of public water systems. More recently, the Trump administration rolled back some regulations for some PFAS compounds in drinking water.

The national strategy dedicated a robust five pages to highlight the dangers of PFAS in paper straws. By contrast, plastic waste took up over two pages, saying plastic straws pose a tiny threat while doing virtually nothing to address the larger crisis of ocean pollution.

However, the low recycling rate of plastic items remains a major environmental challenge in both oceans and freshwater ecosystems.

Bob Stelzer, biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh who studies microplastics in Wisconsin freshwater bodies, said the failure to recycle many plastic items — including single-use plastic straws — is a major problem.

Less than 10% of plastic waste is currently recycled in the U.S., and the rest ends up entering the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that in 2018, the recycling rate for plastics was 8.7%, with a 29% recycling rate of plastic water bottles and a 29.3% of milk or detergent containers. A report by Beyond Plastics and the Last Beach Cleanup said that the U.S. recycled just 5 to 6% of its post-consumer plastic waste in 2021.

While there is a recycling market for certain plastics, many types, including straws, have little to no commercial recycling value and often end up in landfills if they are disposed of properly, said Stelzer.

“I don’t think people would even attempt to recycle plastic straws,” he said. “You can’t even put straws in your blue bins.”

He said plastic litter, which resists natural decay, can make its way into water bodies, both freshwater and seawater, and potentially kill marine animals and birds that mistake them for food.

More than 390 million plastic straws are used every day in the U.S., often for 30 minutes or less before being thrown away, according to the advocacy group Straws Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Peaslee said paper straws are more sustainable than plastic straws. Unlike petroleum-based plastic, paper comes from a renewable resource and is biodegradable. Plastic, by contrast, is not biodegradable and contributes significantly to long-lasting pollution.

Plastic waste, including straws, bags, bottles, or cups, can break down into microplastics — tiny particles of polymers smaller than a grain of rice.

Wisconsin is not immune to microplastics in water bodies. Stelzer said his team has detected microplastics in nearly any lake or river they’ve studied in Wisconsin — from inland waterways like Lake Winnebago and the Fox River, all the way to Green Bay and Lake Michigan.

He said freshwater species, including fish, clams, and some types of aquatic organisms, can ingest microplastics, creating a potential route for human exposure through the food chain.

The level of microplastics in the environment is a growing concern, as they have been detected in human brains, and early research suggests potential links to health issues such as dementia.

Although straws are part of a broader plastic pollution problem, banning paper straws could be seen as a step backward, he said.

“As long as paper is not harmful to the person using the straw, then paper straws are more environmentally friendly than plastic straws,” he added.

Zhen Wang is a business reporter for The Post-Crescent. Reach her with story tips and feedback at [email protected] or 920-993-7117.