The truth about the Polystyrene Pet Balls
Pet balls are being used for Barley balls ?
First, this product that is being used as a Barley Ball , was not was not designed for that use.
They are Pet balls or Rat balls, and they are  NOT recommended by the manufacturers of them to be used in ponds.
Further here are some facts about Polystyrene  this information is available on the internet .  
Global warming potential is rated by using Carbon Dioxide  as the base line, in other words , if a product was given a rating of 10, it is 10 times more damaging to the Ozone layer than Carbon Dioxide is.
Polystyrene
Their ozone depletion potential is greatly reduced relative to CFCs which were formerly used, but their global warming potential can be on the order of 1200-1600, meaning it has 1200-1600 times greater effect on global warming over 100 years  than does carbon dioxide.

Nylon production, nitric acid production, biomass burning, cultivated soils, automobiles with three-way catalysts.
Global warming potential can be on the order 270 over 100 years.

So Polystyrene Pet Balls produce over 4 times MORE Global Warming potential over  a 100 year time frame than Nylon nets do.
But if you figure it out by true weight , the same way they figure the Global warming charts, a EMPTY Polystyrene Pet Ball weighs in at a whopping 215 grams for a med size or 7 inch ball, and the same size Nylon Net ball the empty nylon netting weighs in at 5 grams.
It is  40 times the weight  of a net ball?
So multiply that by the factor of 4  listed above and The Pet Ball is actually causing   over 140 times more pollution to make .

Here is some more Information on the product  Polystyrene .
Styrene is a widely used solvent and volatile organic compound (VOC). Styrene is used in the manufacture of plastics, synthetic rubber, resins, insulators, coatings, and paints, and therefore a possible industrial pollutant of water, air and soil. Because it is a component of car exhaust, styrene is a major contributor to photochemical smog and air pollution.
 
Styrene can leach into groundwater and contaminate drinking water supplies when it’s released into the environment. Styrene is regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which requires regular testing for styrene in public water supplies.

And these sellers of this product want you to put this in your Fish pond?
Remember , if you call the maufacturers of the Pet Balls ,they will tell you that the product was NOT tested for use in a pond , or with water.  I know , I called them myself, and there are only 2 company’s that make these, and nether one would say they are safe to use in a pond.
In fact , they state the Product is NOT recommended for use in ponds !
Remember that this product IS similar to what is used for drinking containers, but is NOT the same compounds  or  has additional  additives  and   is NOT rated for a Drinking   Water related Product. In other words it is NOT FOOD GRADE PLASTIC, and the manufacturer of the balls will tell you that.
Polystyrene leaches benzene, a carcinogen, into our drinking water. Benzene is the active ingredient in cigarette smoke. Polycarbonate leaches bisphenol-A, a hormone disrupter, into the ground water.  Polycarbonate was recently banned in Canada for use in making water and baby bottles. Bisphenol-A has become a very prominent concern from health officials, whose testing has shown that the vast majority of people have this chemical in their bodies, most likely from plastic source .

What does this all mean , it means the net Ball  is a "Green Product "!
We produce a product that is 120 times more friendly to the environment than a misused Rodent/Pet Ball.
Polystyrene takes 900 years to break down in a land fill.
Almost 96% of  Polystyrene produced in the USA is NOT recyclable.
Nylon takes  30 to 40 years  to break down in a land fill.
75% of Nylon CAN be recycled.
You do the math………
What product is really environmentally friendly ?
That is easy to figure out…The Net Ball is  produced as  the MOST environmentally friendly product on the Market today.

Our netting is paitented , and made just for us.

That is why the others can not change over to it, WE hold the paitent on it.

This is Factual information, not the false claims and weak claims made by the Plastic Rat Ball Barley Ball producers.

There have been over 20,000 barley balls sold in our net material, and not 1 claim ever of small fry fish being trapped in the netting, as the Plastic Rat Ball producers try to claim.

To sum it up, they will say anything to get you to by thier product, that causes 120 times the pollution to produce.

You be the judge... GO GREEN.....use a net and the plastic  forget......The Earth will thank you.....