CONSUMER NEWS
First Ban on Plastic Six-Pack Rings: Over strong objections from beverage distributors and plastics manufacturers, Maine will become the first state to end the sale of containers bound together with the plastic devices. Environmentalists say thousands of animals are killed annually when they get caught in the rings, which take years to degrade. Industry representatives contend that substitutes are equally long-lived, that discarded fishing line and tackle kill many more fish and animals and, according to an industry estimate, that providing an alternative to the connectors will cost Maine consumers an extra $6 million a year.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
