Coca-Cola makes the cap and bottle of all its products inseparable to facilitate collection and recycling

PET bottles of all the company's brands will have the cap attached in order to facilitate the recycling of the entire package and avoid the dispersion of plastic in the environment.

The introduction of Tethered Caps is part of Coca-Cola's innovation and sustainability journey and is part of the implementation of the new European Directive on single-use plastics, which will come into force in 2024.

Milan, January 19, 2023 – Less than a year after its introduction on FuzeTea, Coca-Cola is extending Tethered caps to all brands in the portfolio, with the aim of simplifying collection and recycling and reducing the dispersion and impact of plastic on the environment.

An important innovation that confirms the company's commitment to making packaging increasingly sustainable and that anticipates the provisions contained in the EU directive on closures of plastic packaging for beverages, which will come into force in 2024.

The introduction of Tethered Caps is just the latest of Coca-Cola's sustainability initiatives in recent years. All plastic, glass and aluminum packaging is already 100% recyclable and several formats are 100% rPET, with continuous investments to soon reach 100% recycled plastic for all product packaging sold in the country, thanks also to the reopening of CCH CircularPET's Gaglianico factory, a state-of-the-art plant for the processing of recycled PET.

Other milestones in our journey have been a continuous work to reduce the raw material of our glass, aluminum and plastic packaging , the renunciation of the orange color of Fanta bottles and the green of those of Sprite, which has made it easier to recycle them into new transparent bottles, and the introduction of KeelClip™ secondary packaging, a 100% recyclable paper system that eliminates the need for multi-pack plastic cans.

"Coca-Cola shares the European Union's commitment to encouraging the correct collection and recycling of waste and the new caps are just the latest result of the commitment to reduce the impact of our packaging," says Cristina Camilli, Director of Communication and Institutional Relations Coca-Cola Italy.  "We are constantly working to bring innovation and make packaging sustainable and we will take the transition to these new caps as an opportunity to promote and raise awareness of the importance of proper recycling and make the concept of circular economy more and more real".

Over the next few months, the Tethered Caps will be progressively extended to all of the company's plastic bottles. The new caps have an innovative design, the result of intense research and development work to ensure an optimal consumer experience while maintaining the usual opening system: the cap is only connected to a safety ring by means of a tab that ensures that it cannot be separated from the bottle, so as to make it easier to deliver the entire package with the cap attached. The transition to Tethered Caps will be  supported by a message on the cap of each bottle or on the label, as well as a communication campaign that illustrates its features and benefits to consumers.