Pollution Success Story
Environmental concerns can be triggers to technical improvements.
In 1957, the first aluminium cans were used for drinks. Originally, they were punctured at the top to create an opening to pour the drink out.
Then in 1962, the pull-ring tab first marketed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. This was a great innovation that helped canned drinks take over from bottled, and massively increased the market in America and then throughout the world.
Pull-tabs became a common form of litter.
They wound up on beaches, where children cut their feet on them. They littered roadsides and damaged garbage disposals.
Douglas Adams put a picture of the ring-pull on the front of “Life, the Universe and Everything” to show (his opinion) of the worst pollutant in the Universe.
They also caused injuries to lips, cheeks, noses and throats (when accidentally swallowed).
Pets and wildlife died from swallowing them.
And gossip has it that “more than a few people” also died, having dropped them into a can of beer and then accidentally choked on them.
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