If it is as described, won't it harm turtles in the same way plastic straws do? That is, after all, why paper straws became popular following that viral video that went around. Poor structural integrity was the desirable trait they offered.

The "harming turtles" thing was wildly overstated, to start.

Also, ideally not, because the turtles that were claimed to be affected are in the ocean, where the straws degraded in just a few months.

What do you mean it was widely overstated? It is held by the mainstream news as the driver of paper straw adoption. It is not like people gave up on plastics in general over concern for the environment, it was only straws specifically.

Are you one of those "fake news" types?