Connected closure: a new way to reduce plastic cap litter
In addition to using recycled plastic bottles, caps and lids, the beverage industry is looking at tethered caps as a way of reducing the environmental impact of single-use plastics.
Oishi Group, a leader in the Japanese food and beverage business, has already made the switch, recently launching its redesign of Oishi Green Tea packaging with plastic tethered caps to help combat environmental pollution from plastic litter.
Suporn Denpaisarn, vice president of the group’s beverage business, said that despite Oishi using PET bottles and caps that can be 100% recycled, the separated caps were inevitably thrown away after opening, making it difficult to collect them for recycling. Tethered caps, which stay attached to the bottles, are therefore seen as a solution.
In addition, Oishi is planning to switch to perforated labels, which can be removed easily.
Earlier, the company changed the type of plastic material used to PET preforms for its Green Tea bottles, thus reducing plastic material by about 6.4% a year.
Last year, SCG Chemicals (SCGC), a leading integrated chemical player for sustainability, partnered with SACMI IMOLA SC, a manufacturer of machines, moulds, and developer of plastic bottle caps for the world’s leading beverage brands, to create the green carbonated soft drink bottle cap, a new design that incorporates the sustainable design concept.
This is a promising new option for cap manufacturers and beverage brand owners wanting to shift towards eco-friendlier packaging in the carbonated soft drink bottle cap segment, where over 130 billion caps are used yearly.
It also complies with the EU Single-Use Plastic (SUP) Directive to prevent plastic litter, which will come into force in July 2024. The directive mandates that caps and lids on all beverage containers with a capacity of up to three litres remain firmly attached to the bottle even after they have been opened. The directive is an integral part of the EU's wider approach announced in their Plastics Strategy and an important element of the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.
Plastic pollution is a global crisis with plastic bottle caps cited as being within the top five most dangerous pollutants for marine life. Plastic bottle caps end up in landfills and oceans each year, posing serious threats to marine life and ecosystems.
As bottle caps are frequently ingested by mammals, birds and sea life, reducing their pollution is vital to avoid potential losses of biodiversity. Caps have also been found to leave microplastics when left in the environment, which may then be present within human food sources, such as seafood, further down the line.
