This will change in 2024: Tethered caps will become mandatory / Changeover for consumers and manufacturers

From summer 2024, all lids must remain firmly attached to single-use plastic beverage containers with a volume of up to 3 litres (tethered caps). This is stipulated by the European Union's Single-Use Plastics Directive 2019/904. With the complete changeover this year, consumers will become more accustomed to the new handling of tethered caps when drinking and pouring. The changeover is intended to ensure that single-use beverage containers with lids are returned to the recycling cycle.

As the largest beverage producer in Germany, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Deutschland (CCEP DE) has been introducing tethered caps since autumn 2021. In the large production network with 14 production sites in Germany, a total of 20 production lines in 11 plants will have to be converted by July 2024. At the turn of the year - and therefore well before the EU directive comes into force - CCEP DE is already well prepared: By December, 15 of 20 production lines in 10 of 11 plants had already been converted: in Dorsten, Mannheim, Mönchengladbach, Hildesheim, Knetzgau, Halle, Lüneburg, Karlsruhe, Fürstenfeldbruck and Bad Neuenahr. Production lines in Halle, Genshagen and Lüneburg are set to follow by July 2024.

At the beginning of the launch, consumers struggled with fixed closures. There was a similar reaction back in the early 1990s when the tear-off tabs on drinks cans were replaced by stay-on closures. Today, these are no longer being questioned. "It can be assumed that consumers will increasingly get used to them by 2024. This will be ensured by the progressive and ultimately final switchover of all disposable beverage packaging to tethered caps," says Tilmann Rothhammer, Managing Director Customer Service & Supply Chain at CCEP DE.

By the way: with the right drinking technique, getting used to drinks bottles with tethered caps will definitely work: If you make sure that the bottle cap is on the left or right side when drinking, you can enjoy your drink without a cap on your nose or chin. So: unscrew, bend back, click into place - and enjoy.