Coca-Cola introduces tethered caps

Two years ahead of the European directive, in April the company rolled out tethered caps on FuzeTea bottles with the aim of simplifying recycling.

Coca-Cola has begun the roll-out of tethered caps on the Italian market, starting with FuzeTea. This innovation comes two years ahead of the implementation of the EU Single-Use Plastic Directive and is intended to ensure that each cap is recycled together with its bottle to reduce the release of plastic into the environment.

With an innovative design based on intense R&D efforts, the new caps are tethered to a safety ring on the necks of the bottles and will be gradually adopted on all fully recyclable PET packaging used by the company’s main brands.

“Coca-Cola has long shared and sustained the European Union’s commitment to encouraging waste collection and recycling,” says Cristina Camilli, Director of Communication and Institutional Relations at Coca-Cola Italia. “The new FuzeTea caps are just the latest step in our efforts to put the circular economy concept into practice.”

The project is part of Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste sustainability strategy, which has resulted in investments of more than €130 million in Italy over the last ten years. One example is the bottles made from 100% recycled plastic (R-Pet) for various formats of Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and FuzeTea.

Coca-Cola has long been committed to reducing the quantities of raw materials used in glass, aluminium and plastic packaging, and with the introduction of tethered caps has reduced the amount of plastic per FuzeTea cap by 14%. The recent launch of KeelClip also demonstrates the company’s commitment to secondary packaging. This innovative 100% recyclable paper system entirely eliminates plastic wrapping from multi-packs of cans. Last but not least, the adoption of clear bottles for Fanta and Sprite has allowed for greater recyclability.