Nutgraf

It seems like only yesterday that I was all excited about checking out the photodegradability of these plastic six-pack rings. And then the experimental array was carelessly discarded by our yard guys, who clearly have no regard for science. Now *sniff* the time has come to bring the outdoor rings inside and declare a result.

Drumroll, please.

Holy shit, it worked.

They do degrade in sunlight. Or in the out-of-doors, at least. The outdoor bag has suffered mightily in the elements. And I only found the handle portion (lying near the top of the bag in this photo, between the two writing areas) and a small piece of the ring part still taped to the bottom. The middle part must have broken off and blown away. Which, honestly, fulfills the promise of becoming brittle.

Here’s the photo from the beginning, back when I was young.

Spouse and I had this great plan for a testing regimen, taking both sets and hanging increasingly heavy items from the rings until one snapped. But there is no need. The handle is so brittle that I snapped it in two with my bare hands. Check it out!

The experiment ran from August 3 to December 6, so this is what four months in a Bethesda back yard will do do a six-pack ring. No, it’s not an overnight dissolve. But it’s not 500 years of trapping ducks and fish either. This ought to ease the furrowed brows of my colleagues, who paid a disconcerting amount of attention to this story.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.