For years, plastics processors have been attempting to make polymers resistant to UV light degradation through addition of carbon black or chemical UV inhibitors. However, with the advent of litter legislation to clean up the environment, many government officials, at the urging of environmentalists, have been tacking on laws which require the plastic rings connecting beverage cans to be either, bio, photo, or chemically degradable. Since spontaneous chemical degradation does not seem feasible and attempts to make plastics truly biodegradable have not been successful, photodegradation was explored, particularly since plastics are already susceptible to UV degradation. Now, relatively quick photodegradation has been achieved by copolymerizing ethylene and carbon monoxide. This results in a polymer having processing characteristics and physical properties similar to low density polyethylene.