Coca-Cola introduces FuzeTea bottle caps to facilitate collection, recycling and reduce the dispersion of plastic into the environment

Two years ahead of the European Directive,  since April the cap and bottle of iced tea have been inseparable to simplify recycling

Milan, April 21, 2022 – Coca-Cola introduces "Tethered Caps" to the Italian market, starting with FuzeTea tea. An important innovation that anticipates by two years the provisions contained in the EU directive on the closures of plastic packaging for beverages, with the aim that each cap is recycled together with the bottle, in order to reduce the dispersion and impact of plastic  on the environment.

The new caps have an innovative design, the result of intense research and development work to ensure an optimal experience for the consumer while maintaining the usual opening system: the cap is connected to a safety ring by means of a tab that ensures a perfect opening position and, at the same time, guarantees that it cannot be separated from the bottle.

"Coca-Cola has long pursued and shares the European Union's commitment to encouraging the collection and recycling of waste. Our goal is to reduce the impact of our packaging and we work every day in terms of innovation to allow people to enjoy our beverages, in a way that is sustainable for them and for the planet," says Cristina Camilli, Director of Communications and Institutional Relations Coca-Cola Italy. "The new Fuze Tea caps are just the latest result of our commitment to make the concept of circular economy more and more concrete and invite people to recycle correctly, disposing of bottle and cap together".

This innovation marks a fundamental step in Coca-Cola's journey to make its packaging increasingly sustainable and will start in April with FuzeTea bottles and then be progressively extended within a year to all PET packaging, already fully recyclable, of the main brands in the portfolio.

"Tethered Caps" is part of Coca-Cola's World Without Waste sustainability strategy, which in the last 10 years has resulted in over 130 million euros of investments with an impact on sustainability in Italy. Examples include bottles made from 100% recycled plastic (rPET) for different formats of Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and FuzeTea. In addition, Coca-Cola has also been committed to reducing the raw material in glass, aluminum and plastic packaging for years and, with the introduction of Tethered Caps, has reduced the amount of plastic per FuzeTea cap by 14%. Furthermore, with the recent introduction of KeelClip™ , it has also concretized its commitment to secondary packaging: the innovative 100% recyclable paper system, in fact, allows the plastic wrapping to be completely eliminated from multiple packs of cans. Finally, with the removal of color from Fanta and Sprite bottles, it has made it easier to recycle them into new transparent bottles.

The new cap will be present on the 40cl and 125cl PET bottles of all FuzeTea variants.  The introduction of this novelty is accompanied by a communication campaign that, starting from the claim "United to recycle", illustrates the functions and advantages of the new cap to consumers.