The six-pack: You don’t need one to carry one

Today it’s [straws]( but [in the 1980s]( a different beverage convenience crested the first wave of concern about plastic pollution: the six-pack holder, temporary truss of soda and cheap beer since… well, not that long before people started noticing they were a problem. In the midst of the latest wave of concern about plastics, manufacturers are finally experimenting with alternatives. Chunky PakTech CanCarriers are 96% recycled (and craft makers like them [because they look distinct](. Corona is trying out [biodegradable six-pack holders]( Carlsberg has developed a glue that [bonds the cans together](. And Florida-based Saltwater Brewery makes [edible rings]( from waste barley and wheat. But what won’t change, unless soda companies and big beer start imitating the [craft four-pack trend]( is the six in six-pack. It’s not just habit; the sixer makes a lot of sense. Crack one open and stay awhile. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Sponsored by [Quartz Obsession] The six-pack December 27, 2018 The joy of six --------------------------------------------------------------- Today it’s [straws]( but [in the 1980s]( a different beverage convenience crested the first wave of concern about plastic pollution: the six-pack holder, temporary truss of soda and cheap beer since… well, not that long before people started noticing they were a problem. In the midst of the latest wave of concern about plastics, manufacturers are finally experimenting with alternatives. Chunky PakTech CanCarriers are 96% recycled (and craft makers like them [because they look distinct](. Corona is trying out [biodegradable six-pack holders]( Carlsberg has developed a glue that [bonds the cans together](. And Florida-based Saltwater Brewery makes [edible rings]( from waste barley and wheat. But what won’t change, unless soda companies and big beer start imitating the [craft four-pack trend]( is the six in six-pack. It’s not just habit; the sixer makes a lot of sense. Crack one open and stay awhile. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Ready to go deeper? --------------------------------------------------------------- We’re tired of all the shouting matches and echo chambers on social media, and thought you might be, too. On the new Quartz app, we’ve gathered a community of curious thinkers and doers to have high-quality discussions about the most important stories each day. It’s like an ongoing conversation with CEOs like Richard Branson, Punit Renjen, Arianna Huffington, and many more. Now available for iOS and Android. [Try the Quartz app]( Reuters/Eric Gaillard By the digits [3 billion:]( Gallons of beer sold in six packs in the US each year [0.5625:]( in one standard six-pack [1,500:]( Number of six-pack rings found over the course of a few hours during one beach clean-up on the Oregon coast in 1988 [2,400:]( Cans per minute at which beverage packager HiCone can package six-packs today [300 million:]( Tons of plastic the world produces in a year [8%:]( Proportion of global oil production used to make petroleum, a main component in plastic six-pack rings Sponsored by AT&T Business Future of Business Intelligence --------------------------------------------------------------- Businesses dictate how well we live. We need them to make informed decisions, so that they can best serve us. That’s why business intelligence—the practice of drawing insights from data to inform strategy—can have a direct effect on our lives. The more intelligent our businesses are, the better our lives are.[Find out more on qz.com]( Reuters/Christian Hartmann Origin story Rolling sixes --------------------------------------------------------------- The story of the six-pack starts with Coca-Cola. In 1923, 33-year-old Robert Woodruff, a college dropout who had risen from truck salesman to shipping-company president, was recruited to run Coca-Cola by his father, who had led a team of investors to buy the struggling company a few years prior. Woodruff proved to be a brilliant marketer, and one the company’s first innovations under his leadership came from Harrison Jones, the VP of sales and future chairman of the board. Wanting consumers to buy more than one bottle at a time, Jones created the “six-box” with a “handle of invitation,” [writes Mark Pendergrast]( in [For God, Country, and Coca-Cola](. It didn’t take, so the company, with an ad department that was racy for the time, created an ad with a woman holding a carton in one hand, showing some leg with the other, captioned “My Six Appeal.” But what really made the format appeal wasn’t heat, it was cold: when refrigerators became common appliances, Americans had more reason to take home multiple bottles. Charted[atlas_BymwFiHxN@2x] Brief history When the six-box became the sixer --------------------------------------------------------------- There are competing theories as to which brewery was the first to put beer in a six-pack. [According to the American Beer Museum]( when beer companies started to target the home drinker over bars in the 1950s, that precipitated the switch from crates to packs—and six was either a sensible size to fit in a shopping bag, or Pabst settled on it after studying how much a housewife could carry. Another claim dates back to the 1940s. Now-defunct Jacksonville, Florida-based Jax Beer (“The Drink of Friendship”) [bought 100,000 burlap sacks]( and sold them with six bottles. (Sadly, containers did the company in; according to one of the brothers who owned the company, the beer giants were better able to absorb the cost of new aluminum cans.) Finally, other sources point to its invention by [Ballantine’s in 1938](. Whatever the origin, the 1950s seems to be the inflection point. The first appearance of the phrase “six-pack” with regards to beer in the Chicago Tribune is a 1952 ad for Budweiser inviting you to buy it “by the case or the handy six-pack carton,” while the first mention of it in a New York Times article is in a [1954 business brief]( announcing that Blatz Brewing would offer a four-pack of 16-ounce beers “designed to sell for less than the six-pack of regular twelve-ounce cans.” Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with The six-pack? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – Ben Tesch/Flickr Fun fact! In 1969, when La Crosse, Wisconsin (population 52,000) had 15 breweries, Old Style brewer G. Heileman built six tanks of 100,000 gallons each to hold its fully krausened beer. The next year, the company painted them to create [the world’s largest six-pack]( which holds the equivalent of 7.3 million cans. This one weird trick! Plastic fantastic --------------------------------------------------------------- The familiar flimsy plastic six-pack holder is the result of an accident and years of hard work. It’s made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The material had been created in 1933 by mixing ethylene and benzaldehyde at high pressure and high temperature to create a double bond, but it had an impractical tendency to blow up. British researchers tried the process with just ethylene, but their other breakthrough was a mistake: a flawed vessel let in the right amount of oxygen to make it work. “For once it didn’t explode—usually it did—and we thought something must be wrong,” one of the chemists [told Woman’s Own magazine]( in 1961. The six-pack carrier itself was more deliberate. [Ougljesa Jules Poupitch]( was a research engineer for Illinois Tool Works with [dozens of patents to his name]( fasteners, screws, and washers. In 1951 he branched out with a [cardboard carrier]( “of substantially frustoconical or truncated conical compartments.” (Basically, we’re talking about [cones with the tops cut off]( Five years later he designed [two systems]( that would [clip six cans together](. That was followed by [“annular beads”]( to clip any number together. In 1957 he [hit on the ur-six-pack]( an “apertured sheet or web of resilient stretchable material”; the cans would “deform the material adjacent the apertures into a frustoconical shape whereby the cans are aggressively retained against withdrawal in the direction opposite to that in which they have been inserted.” Jargon watch The harder to obtain six-pack --------------------------------------------------------------- When did the phrase start being applied to the body part that gets hidden by a beer belly? According to Mel magazine, [it emerged as African-American slang in the 1990s](. Even the desire for rippling abs is fairly recent, perhaps beginning with the movie Rocky. NOAA Fun Fact! Thanks to the [EPA’s 1994 mandate]( all US six-pack rings must be degradable. Most are photodegradable, meaning they break down in light, which takes between [one and four months](. This means sea animals are less likely to be entangled by rings, but more likely to consume byproducts formed as the plastic breaks down. Annals of the law Only in Philadelphia --------------------------------------------------------------- For decades, buying a six-pack in Pennsylvania was a herculean task, thanks to Prohibition-era governor Gifford Pinchot, who specifically made it “as inconvenient and as expensive as possible” once it had to be legal. Beer distributors could sell cases and kegs, but nothing smaller. Grocery stores couldn’t sell them. Only [bottle shops, corner bars, and restaurants]( could. But in 2009, the grocery store Wegman’s installed a separate entrance with hot food and cashiers, which [squeezed them through the restaurant loophole]( and began the liberalization of the state’s liquor laws. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi Listen to this! In 1960, when the number had been well-established, country singer Hank Thompson paid tribute with the song [“Six Pack to Go.”]( Million-dollar question How do I correctly dispose of plastic six-pack rings? --------------------------------------------------------------- The US [Environmental Protection Agency advises:]( - Cut the rings off so that sea animals (like fish, turtles, or seals) can’t get tangled in them—leave no solid plastic loops. - Recycle the cut up bits with your other plastic scraps. Giphy Poll My favorite sixer is [Click here to vote]( Anything cheapAnything that doesn't come in plasticThe harder to obtain kind The Quartz Obsession is publishing on a lighter schedule through January 2. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20the%20six-pack&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Quincey Tickner]( and [Whet Moser]( and produced by [Luiz Romero.]( Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! If you click a link to an e-commerce site and make a purchase, we may receive a small cut of the revenue, which helps support our ambitious journalism. See [here]( for more information. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States [Share this email](