With the new year already in full swing, I’d still like to first of all welcome all our readers to this first issue of 2024. Read it here!
Yes, it’s true that by the time you read this, the first month of 2024 will have already come and gone. The initial sparkle of energy that accompanies a new start has probably faded away; all those good intentions and firm resolutions for the new year have perhaps started crumbling or even been altogether abandoned.
But a new edition of Sustainable Plastics is always something to look forward to, and this one is no different. As 2024 promises to be a landmark year for sustainability and plastics on various levels, as the cover illustrates, in this issue we’ve chosen to spotlight one of the more visible changes for this year: tethered caps.
Other milestone developments in 2024 include – of course – the UN’s aim to have drafted an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution by the end of the year; and the new CSRD - Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – which came into force on 1 January and requires all large companies and listed SMEs that operate in the EU- there are around 50,000 - to report on their climate impact. These companies must begin publishing regular reports in 2025 for the financial year 2024. Then there’s the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive that requires EU member states to have EPR schemes up and running for all packaging types by 2024.
Also on this issue:
- Antimicrobials additives;
- The total cost of bioplastics;
- Progress on Extended Producer Responsibility in India;
- Recycling regulatory uncertainties;
- Polymer prices, and much more!
But, back to the tethered caps. They’ve been a long time coming – five years after the entry into force of the Single-Use Plastics Directive - although even now, that may not have been long enough for some. The new attached caps require extensive adjustments to the manufacturing process and redesigns to the packaging itself. Nonetheless, by July of this year caps and lids on all beverage containers with a capacity of up to three litres will be required to remain firmly attached to the container even after they have been opened.
The aim of the new rule is to ensure that the caps make it into the recycling stream together with the bottles or other containers. At the moment, plastic bottle caps are reportedly the second most littered item - after cigarette butts- and are among the top 10 items found during beach clean-ups around the world.
Bottle caps, in short, are a major source of environmental pollution. Hence the thinking behind the EU’s mandating the use of tethered caps is easy to understand.
After all, by keeping container and closure attached to one another, the odds that the cap will be recycled rather than littered are considerably increased. As a solution, it represents another step towards a circular economy, in line with the resolution adopted by the EU on the new circular economy action plan in 2021.
That, surely, is one resolution that this year we should keep.
Click here to read this latest issue.