31.05.2024

What is the reason the caps are attached to the bottles?

The design of plastic bottles in Europe is changing due to new EU rules. The release of bottles with attached plastic caps will be widespread in Europe from July, it reports Euronews.

What is the new design of the plastic bottle cap?

The new design is pretty straightforward. Instead of the caps that we are used to unscrewing completely, there are additional plastic bands connecting the cap to the bottle.

Coca-Cola was one of the first companies to embrace the change as they rolled out the design across Europe over the past year and a half.

"This small change has the potential to make a big impact by ensuring that consumers recycle our bottles and no caps are thrown away," says Coca-Cola Ireland manager Agnese Filippi.

Users are not happy with the new caps

Coca-Cola and other major beverage companies haven't always been so open to changing their bottle designs.

When rules requiring the change were first announced by the EU in 2018, they hit back, claiming it would lead to an increase in plastic and cost manufacturers.

Now that bottles with attached caps are spreading across the continent, some consumers are also unhappy with the new design.

They complain on social media that the cap hits them in the face while drinking and also makes drinks more difficult to pour.

Why is the cap attached to the plastic bottle?

It is mandatory for all EU countries to remove loose caps by July for plastic drinks bottles up to three litres. This is part of an EU directive announced in 2018 that aims to reduce single-use plastic waste.

The loose caps have been banned as part of a larger plan to tackle plastic waste in Europe.

The block says they are some of the most discarded single-use plastic products on beaches.

Currently, large quantities remain unrecycled and simply end up in seawater. Researchers estimate that the production and burning of plastic was responsible for releasing more than 850 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2019.

The new plastic caps are just one of a series of measures taken by the EU.

Packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables, toiletries for mini hotels and fast food in restaurants will soon be banned under legislation approved in March.

The hope is that by attaching the cap, people are less likely to throw it away as they would have to throw the whole bottle away with it.

EU member states are free to set their own design requirements, as long as

"that the caps remain attached to the containers during the intended use stage of the products".

So the design we currently see on drinks like Coca-Cola is not the only one possible, although it will be the most common given their market dominance. Other major beverage companies have already adopted Coca-Cola's design.