The Saltwater Brewery in Florida, United States, decided to say no to marine pollution. It is replacing its plastic rings for six-pack of beer into biodegradable and edible ones. These new casings have been especially designed to help protect wildlife and environment and prevent marine animals from choking on plastic debris.
This latest invention was developed out of leftover barley and wheat. These casings are 100% compostable and if not eaten, they will not stay for years on the seabed. They are also as strong as the existing plastic casings. The Saltwater Brewery which teamed up with the ad agency We Believers for this project nurtures the deep hope that larger brewing companies will embrace this lifesaving idea soon despite the fact that these edible six-pack beer rings are more costly than the usual plastic ones. The brewery plans to use these edible rings on all other cans that it produces which add up to 400,000 per month.
Eighty percent of marine debris is plastic – a component that has been rapidly accumulating since the end of World War II. The mass of plastic in the oceans may be as high as one hundred million metric tons. It is estimated that about one million sea birds and 100,000 marine animals die every year after being entrapped or strangled by plastic, or by ingesting it. Fish, turtles, dolphins, whales, seals, birds and other marine animals are falling victim. Large sea mammals can also starve to death if they are muzzled by plastic litter.
According to researchers of the World Economic Forum, by 2050 our oceans will hold more plastic than fish when measured by weight. It can take up to 1,000 years for plastic to break up. Scientists have also enlisted a number of dead zone areas around the planet where no living organism can exist anymore, due to pollution.
