Made for the sea: Golf balls out of lobster shells (university, farmers)

[msina]

Golfers on the high seas can breathe a little easier — and so can the marine life around them — thanks to a biodegradable golf ball made from lobster shells. The ball is intended for use on cruise ships and so should lead to fewer regular golf balls ending up in the ocean.

Though biodegradable golf balls already exist, this ball is the first to be made with crushed lobster shells with a biodegradable binder and coating, creating value from waste material.

"We’re using a byproduct of the lobster canning industry which is currently miserably underutilized — it ends up in a landfill," said David Neivandt, a professor of biological and chemical engineering at the University of Maine, in a statement

Made for the sea: Golf balls out of lobster shells - Technology & science - Innovation - msnbc.com

[moughie]

Great idea - Go UMO!
Think how therapeutic and guilt-free it must feel for a golfer to just use the ocean as a driving range utilizing these lobster shell balls.

[Maineah]

Innovative... and I'm sure the three dozen they sell a year will more than pay for the time wasted in developing them.....

[Coaster]

If they can get the cruise ship industry interested in this, they can sell millions of them. Each ship goes through a couple thousand balls at least for each cruise. The duffers really like to see those golf balls fly.

Still, I'd prefer to see the shells composted and used by farmers and gardeners. The idea that they go to landfills now is such a waste.

[Maineah]

It's a good use for the old shells that's for sure. How about lobster shell skeet? They shoot hundreds of those on cruise ships too. If you can make a golf ball you can make a clay pigeon!