From today, single-use 3-litre and smaller beverage containers with plastic caps and lids can only be placed on the EU market if the caps and lids remain attached to the containers during the products’ intended use and storage.
When the legislation was first floated, various multinationals, including Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestlé and PepsiCo, vigorously opposed the idea. Such a requirement, they pointed out, would involve vast amounts of time, effort and investment. New designs, new moulds, and often new machines would be needed, none of which would be achievable within the envisioned time frame.
Those brands proved themselves wrong. Coca-Cola, for example, introduced tethered caps one year and a half before the deadline, in partnership with Berry.
Consumer reaction
Some consumers are not happy with the new design. As more attached bottle caps entered the market throughout the year, consumers have taken to social media to complain about the design. The most common complaint is that the cap hits drinkers’ faces – there’s an array of parody photos making the rounds in the likes of TikTok and Instagram. Some consumers tear off the caps on video in an act of desperation, leading to effusive spillages.
Not all tethered caps are created equal, however. Some closure designs work better than others. There’s a click mechanism in some designs which assures the cap stays in place horizontally, preventing those face-hitting moments, for example. Switzerland-based Corvaglia was of the earliest manufacturers to introduce that design.
Time will also play a role in helping consumers adapt to the new design. The use of tethered caps has probably had the most media attention during the men’s European Football Championship taking place in Germany this summer. Players are seen drinking from plastic bottles with attached caps during every break, often effortlessly adjusting the cap to an ideal position. As a result, caps won’t end up trashed all over the side lines of the pitch.
That is the goal of the tethered cap legislation - avoiding plastic pollution. The SUPD targets the 10 single-use items most commonly found in European beaches, alongside fishing gear. The measure is expected to prevent 10% of plastic litter found on European beaches, as well as facilitating recycling of caps and closures alongside their containers.
Despite its efforts, the European Commission hasn’t been very successful in transmitting that message. Some consumers’ frustration at the design change is dispelled when they understand the reason beyond it. The Coca-Cola Company said consumer tests found people were generally supportive of the new design, especially once they understood the recycling imperative behind it. The company has printed ‘I am attached to recycle together’ on the caps to ease consumers into the new design.
Design solutions
The European Commission requested standardisation body CEN to develop a standard on how to manage the tethered cap design change. The standard had to be robust enough to ensure caps and lids were of appropriate strength, reliability and safety while remaining attached to the beverage container during the product’s use, in order to adequately fulfil the goal of the tethering requirement. Considerations included tooling design, the weight of the cap and the cap manufacturing process, with brands, packaging producers and equipment suppliers joining together to create compliant solutions.
A variety of solutions have been developed to produce attached caps that comply with the standard. Broadly speaking, manufacturers of caps and closure systems have pursued two main approaches, namely the development of hinged tops and of lasso closures. Both approaches offer a slew of different concepts, with considerations depending on the type of machinery already in use and the associated costs of modifications required.