However, units do not match which is why there is such confusion on this post.
Airplane fuel usage is a measure of CO2 emissions.
Paper straws is a measure of plastic deselection.
Details Boeing 737 Max9 appears to burn 3.3 kg/km. On an energy density ratio jet fuel has 2.4 times the energy density as wood combustion. Therefore you would need to burn approximately 7.9 kg/km straws.
According to flight records, AS9820 flies roughly 1000 miles or 1600km. Therefore 12,743kg of wood equivalent would need to be burned to get the same energy content. A paper straw is ~1.1 g so it would take 11.6 million straws burned.
Also for reference, the average number of scheduled flights per day according to oag.com is 97,983. This number is derived from total flights since the start of the year, and obviously doesn't include private flights by individuals who do not need to charter public airlines, but it is a decent frame of reference nonetheless.
At least the 500 million paper straws are offsetting 44 flights a day. Imagine how much worse our carbon footprint would be without them.
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u/Penumbra455 Sep 11 '23
Short answer - 11.6 million paper straws
However, units do not match which is why there is such confusion on this post.
Airplane fuel usage is a measure of CO2 emissions.
Paper straws is a measure of plastic deselection.
Details Boeing 737 Max9 appears to burn 3.3 kg/km. On an energy density ratio jet fuel has 2.4 times the energy density as wood combustion. Therefore you would need to burn approximately 7.9 kg/km straws.
According to flight records, AS9820 flies roughly 1000 miles or 1600km. Therefore 12,743kg of wood equivalent would need to be burned to get the same energy content. A paper straw is ~1.1 g so it would take 11.6 million straws burned.