people don't seem to realize that the problem isn't what material the disposable cutlery is made out of, it's that people treat cutlery as something disposable
the advantages of plastic straws are: you can make them bendy(sometimes a genuinely necessary thing for disabled people so that they can drink), and you can wash them.
like. seriously. you can't wash a paper straw, it just melts(which is kinda the point iirc), but a plastic straw can be re-used hundreds of times unless someone throws it out.
the main barrier to re-using plastic straws and cutlery is mostly that "helpful" teachers and coworkers and friends and family members will throw them out "for you" when you store them to wash later, or even actively encourage you to throw them out after you state "no I'm going to take it home to wash it". though some straws are just low-quality enough it's not really worth it.
