There's arguably no other institution in the world more fitting than UMaine to create a golf ball made entirely of biodegradable lobster shells.
In a joint project between the Lobster Institute and UMaine Biological and Chemical Engineering, a biodegradable lobster golf ball was created comprised almost entirely from lobster shells. Created by professor David Neivandt and undergraduate student Alex Caddell, the ball is intended to be used on cruise ships.
The best part may be the price, which blows traditional golf balls and even other biodegradables out of the water. According to UMaine's press release, most biodegradable balls retail around $1, while the cost of creating one lobster ball is around 19 cents.
The reason for the inexpensiveness of the ball is that it's largely created from byproducts of the lobster canning industry that are often just thrown out. "We're using a byproduct of the lobster canning industry which is currently miserably underutilized — it ends up in a landfill," Neivandt said. "We're employing it in a value-added consumer product which hopefully has some cachet in the market."
As far as the ball's functionality, it may not quite match-up to traditional golf balls, but it's certainly comparable to other biodegradables.