Brewery Creates Edible Six-Pack Rings

The images of birds and marine life entangled in the plastic rings used to hold together six-packs of beers and soda are all too familiar. Even if consumers cut up the plastic rings before throwing them away, that doesn’t stop birds or marine life from ingesting them. But a craft beer brewery is doing something to change that.

Saltwater Brewery, a small craft beer company based in Delray Beach, Florida, “whose roots and values spur from a lifestyle that revolves around the ocean,” developed fully edible six-pack rings for their Screamin’ Reels IPA. The holders are made from the pulp byproducts created during their brewing process, such as wheat and barley, and are just as strong as their traditional plastic counterparts, according to IFLScience.com. With the help of We Believers, a “co-creation advertising house” based in New York, the brewery hopes to influence bigger brewers to adopt these bio-degradable holders. 

Under federal law since 1989 six-pack rings have been required to be 100% photodegradable, meaning they are capable of being chemically decomposed by light. However, an estimated 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles still die because of six-pack holders each year, because they either became entrapped or ingested the plastic.

“It shows that through innovation the little guys can point the finger at governments and big business to motivate change that impacts our world and the one we will leave for our children,” We Believer’s founder and CCO told Creativity Online. 

3D printer-generated molds were used to maufacture the first batch of 500 edible and biodegradable six-pack rings, which were introduced in April. We Believers and Saltwater Brewery hope to be able to produce 400,000 edible six-pack rings per month, enough for the brewery’s currently monthly production. 

Check out a video explanation of the product here.