Over 8-million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, which is both disgusting and dangerous to all sea creatures.
One of the biggest contributors to this gross epidemic is the seemingly harmless six-pack rings found around cans of soda and beer. Plastic six pack rings can be severely damage marine life. They rings get caught in birds wings, warp the shells of sea turtles and choke seals. And this is just a small taste of the damage that they can do.
In the Gulf of Mexico, plastic pollution is a major issue, with the area having one of the highest concentrations of plastic pollution in the world. Last year, a volunteer beach cleanup on three miles of Elmer’s Island gathered over 170 plastic six-pack rings, along with 4,000 pounds of other trash.
A brewery in Florida has come up with a brilliant way to attempt to put a dent in plastic ocean pollution, all the while, saving marine life.
The brewery created bio gradable six-pack rings that can serve as a tasty treat to wildlife, instead of hurting and killing them. The six pack rings are made from wheat and barley and will not pollution the ocean waters or harm marine life.
The rings look like they are made from cardboard, and that’s because the wheat and barley byproducts have been compressed into a touch, durable material, which can sustain the usual wear and tear associated with transport and storage in a refrigerator.
The rings were developed by Saltwater Brewery, a craft microbrewery in Delray Beach, with a startup called E6PR (short for Eco Six Pack Rings). They hope other breweries will purchase the new rings and help bring manufacturing costs down. Imagine if every manufacturer of plastic rings switched over to these? What a major difference it could make on our planets oceanic pollution issue. And just think how many creatures it would save!!!