Six-pack rings
set of connected plastic rings that are used as packaging
Six-pack rings or six-pack yokes are a set of connected plastic rings that are used in multi-packs of beverage, particularly six-packs of beverage cans. The rings have gained notoriety because of concerns for marine debris entangling wildlife.
History
Invented in the 1960s, within 10 years, plastic rings had completely replaced the paper and metal-based holders then common in the market. Today several manufacturers continue to produce six-pack rings. Though interest in multi-packs has continued to grow, other variations, including paperboard baskets and LDPE plastic can carriers, have grown in popularity, providing an alternative to conventional six-pack rings.
Environmental concerns
Since the late 1970s, six-pack rings were recognized as a form of marine litter. It is recommended that each loop be cut so that no entanglement can occur. In a cleanup of an Oregon beach in 1988, 1,500 six-pack rings were picked up by volunteers in a few hours. Like other plastic products, the production of the plastic rings uses fossil fuels. Compared to fishing gear, cigarette butts and other plastic wastes, six-pack rings are a smaller contributor to marine litter.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2735953. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Six-pack rings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.