Six Alternatives to the Six Pack Rings of Death

Peanut, a turtle in Missouri, who was rescued
from a 6 pack ring of death in 1993.

In five years time, I hope that young children will never meet a plastic 6-pack ring. I hope that those rings of death will be relegated to the past, never to appear again.

That might be a forlorn hope. There are already millions of 6-pack rings floating around in the oceans and waterways of our beautiful planet. But... new ones are on their way out. Soon enough plastic 6 pack rings will be a thing of the past.

They were a horrible invention. Recycling programs don't take them. They are flimsy and fly away easily. They catch wildlife in their circle of death and slowly strangle the life out of them. And yes, I always made an effort to cut every single loop in the 6-pack ring, of which there were more than 6... those littler ones were tricky. But in the end, the plastic ultimately degrades into smaller and smaller bits until we are left with toxic plastics soup. Not pretty.

It's taken a decades (environmentalists have been warning us since the 1980s) but beverage companies and manufacturers are finally coming up with alternatives... some better than others.

Biodegradable 6-Pack Ring

These are kind of a cool option. They are made from wheat and barley brewery residue. They are biodegradable, in the forest or in the ocean. And marine life can nibble on them and not ingest toxic plastic.

I've seen a number of different variations on these. And while some tout that they are "edible", no one claims that they are actually nutritious. Simply that wildlife can eat them and suffer no harmful effects.

Mind you... this obviously is not an option for soft drink manufacturers... lacking the wheat and barley residue from the beer brewing process!

These rings take a few weeks to degrade and... it would be interesting to give that a try. I might track down a 6-pack of beer that uses this sort of holder and then deposit it in the forest and see how it does from day to day.

Cardboard Boxes Holders

Some brewers are going back to fibre and making cardboard boxes or cardboard sleeves to hold the cans of beer.

This is obviously a tried and true method for packing cans. The bigger 12 can packs are often sold in cardboard boxes.

The benefit of these is that they are recyclable and can be tossed in your blue bin. How many actually end up in the blue bin is another question.

But... if these boxes/sleeves end up in the forest or water, they should theoretically decay quite rapidly with no harm done to the environment. Theoretically.

Rigid Plastic 6 Pack Rings

Whoever came up with this idea needs their head examined. Seriously. Yes, the "rings" are gone but I still see holes where a little squirrel could stick their head and then get caught. On top of that, they are still made out of plastic. Lots and lots of plastic.

And if this ends up in the forest or ocean, well... it'll just do what plastic does and slowly degrade into smaller and smaller bits of plastic.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. But can they be recycled? The State of Massachusetts says that they are too small to go into curbside recycling as they slip through the machine sorters and contaminate other material. Epic fail.

 

Glued 6 Packs

Over in Europe, Carlsberg has come up with an innovative way to keep 6 cans together... glue them. So the cans all have a bit of glue holding them together and then there is a little plastic carrying strap that goes from the base of one middle can all the way up and over to the bottom of the other middle can. That's a long strip of plastic.

The glue apparently doesn't impact the recycling process at all.

But the plastic carrying strap is just ripped off and then... what? Thrown away?

Not the best design.

Cardboard Carrier

Heineken has tried something different. They use a piece of cardboard as the device that holds the cans together.

Again, cardboard is way more eco-friendly than plastic. Theoretically this would decompose outside within a few weeks. And no nasty plastic disintegrating into tinier pieces.

I've not seen these ones in the liquor store but... I've not been in a liquor store for a while. Might be time for a field trip!!

 

Keel Pack

You might be wondering what the soft drink companies are doing, as all of the above examples are from breweries! Fear not... they've been working on it...

Introducing the keel pack, a cardboard carrying device with a cardboard "keel" between the cans to help keep them stable.

Cardboard... way better than plastic. Although I am noticing that the last two options are only 4-packs, not 6-packs. Perhaps the Heineken and Coke carrying options aren't quite as strong as the others? Or is this just shrinkflation in action? Where they decrease the size of the container but keep the price the same...

I looked for what Pepsi Cola is doing but... didn't find much. I'll have do a research trip to the grocery store and see what is being sold in stores!

Peanut the Turtle

You might be wondering... what became of that little turtle at the top of the post? The one with a plastic 6-pack ring squeezing her middle. Well... as of 2021, she was still alive and mostly well with some internal organ issues. Peanut likely wandered into the ring of death in the 1980s. She was found in 1993, when she was 9 years old, as pictured above. She was taken to the St. Louis Zoo where the ring was removed. Because of her strange peanut shape, she wasn't released back into the wild, as she would have been at higher risk of predation. Peanut currently lives at the Powder Valley Nature Centre in Kirkwood, Missouri. Peanut was a lucky little turtle...

We might never meet the turtles or the squirrels... but every plastic 6-pack ring that doesn't end up in the forest or stream saves a life. Small steps...