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This Craft Brewery Invented a Brilliant Edible 6-Pack Holder That Helps Sea Life Embracing social entrepreneurship with an eco twist, SaltWater Brewery uses beer-brewing byproducts to create biodegradable rings that nourish -- not maim and kill -- marine life. We'll drink to that.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

We Believers | Youtube

Plastic six-pack holders are often a death sentence for marine life. Fish, turtles, otters, birds -- all kinds of seashore- and ocean-dwelling creatures -- are maimed and killed due to the toxic packaging that makes it easy for us to schlep soda and beer. It's nothing to drink to.

SaltWater Brewery wants to reduce the use of hazardous plastic rings, and it's brewed a brilliant alternative to get the ball rolling -- and to help launch its new Screamin' Reels IPA. The Delray Beach, Fla., craft brewery used beer-brewing byproducts, including barley and wheat pulp, to create a 100 percent biodegradable six-pack ring that marine life can eat.

Related: A Small Business in Montana Just Won $1.5 Million for Ocean Health Technology

Not only is the invention, still in the prototype phase, a brilliant alternative to dangerous plastic rings, it's also a brilliant social entrepreneurship marketing move, a notion not lost on We Believers. That's the New York, N.Y.-based ad agency that helped the brewery design, test and promote the viral campaign.

"We decided to do something to protect marine life and also connect with our primary target -- surfers, fishermen and people who love the sea," a voice says in a heartwarming SaltWater Brewery video highlighting the innovative six-pack rings. To see for yourself, check out the short clip below:

There's a social marketing campaign we can get behind. After all, what's good for the ocean -- and the many creatures who depend on it -- is good for us all.

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

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