ENVIRONMENT
Use our activity to understand marine debris’ “legacy of litter.”
Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit.

Discussion Ideas
Read through our activity “Marine Debris: A Legacy of Litter,” and adapt its questions to the innovative new technology.
- What is marine debris?
- Marine debris includes any manufactured solid material that enters the marine environment.
- What are examples of marine debris?
- Marine debris might include lost fishing nets and gear, paper, cigarette butts, and plastic. Lots and lots of plastic.

Photograph by Staecker, courtesy Wikimedia. Public domain.
- Why are plastic six-pack rings so dangerous to marine animals?
- Mistaken for food: Animals often mistake the gelatinous, clear plastic for food. This may injure them in two major ways: the plastic may be toxic or it may fill up the stomachs of marine animals so that they actually starve to death.
- Entanglement: The ring shapes may entangle or strangle marine animals.
- How does Saltwater Brewery’s innovative new technology reduce the impact of marine debris?
- Saltwater Brewery’s six-pack rings are edible and biodegradable.
- Edible: If they’re entangled, turtles and seabirds simply chew off rings, or even eat them.
- Biodegradable: The rings are created from by-products of the beer-making process (barley and wheat). If the rings aren’t eaten, they simply dissolve.
- Saltwater Brewery’s six-pack rings are edible and biodegradable.
- Why aren’t more beverage companies investing in this technology?
- Hopefully, they will! Because the technology is so new, the edible six-pack rings are more expensive to produce (and buy). As more industries adopt the technology, however, the price will likely fall.

Photograph by Brian Skerry, National Geographic
TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT
2 thoughts on “Edible Six-Pack Rings Could Save Marine Animals”