Ever wanted to hit golf balls into the ocean and not worry about the environmental impact? The Mole may have a solution.
Hitting golf balls into the sea off cruise ships may look like great fun but golf balls are made of plastic and are potentially hazardous to the sea creatures that may mistake them for food.
The MARPOL V treaty, signed in 1991, effectively banned this practice much to the disappointment of all the intrepid golfers on cruise ships. It wasn’t long before non-toxic, water-soluble golf balls that are safe for fish to eat were produced much to the delight of all those holiday-makers just itching to practice their tee shots.
A professor at the university of Maine took it a step further and together with one of his students, Alex Caddell, created a golf ball with a core made of ground-up lobster shells and a biodegradable binder.
“Instead of dumping the shells at landfills, the idea is to add value to the product, which hopefully will funnel back into the industry,” said professor David Neivandt.
Most golfers will be concerned with the performance of the golf ball but the prototype, which is the same size and weight as a standard golf ball, was thoroughly tested until the right mixture was achieved and the results were positive.
An iron shot resulted in the lobster-shell ball going nearly the same distance as a standard, plastic golf ball while the odds are that it will go up to 70 percent of the distance when hitting it with a driver. Neivandt and Caddell have filed a provisional patent for their invention which they believe could be very competitive in the open market as the raw materials for the lobster-shell mixture cost very little.
The enterprising pair did not, however, stop at the production of golf balls, but went on to develop a plant pot made of a lobster shell mixture that is high in calcium and therefore beneficial to plants. The sky is the limit when it comes to lobster shells. To read more about biodegradable golf balls go to www.ecogolfballs.com
