New EU rules on plastic restrictions: Plastic bottle caps must be connected to the bottle body!

▲

Click follow | Daily boutique coffee culture magazine coffee workshop

When drinking soda, some friends will accidentally lose the unscrewed plastic bottle cap. in such a situation, it may come up with the idea of why the bottle cap can not be connected to the soda bottle. However, if the kids go to European supermarkets and see the plastic bottles of drinks on sale, they will not have this idea. Because in Europe, it is against the law if the plastic bottle cap is not connected to the bottle body.

According to the Italian "Chinese Street" news, since last year, the European Union has been adjusting the rules of plastic restrictions, and after about a year, the law on the combination of disposable plastic bottles and bottle caps, which was proposed in June 2019, has finally been settled, and this regulation also appears on the United Nations 2030 circular economy agenda.

According to the regulations, starting from July 3, 2024, under the waste law that came into force last year and the 2019 EU Directive on reducing the impact of plastic products on the environment (EU Directive 2019x904), all beverage caps or packages under 3 liters must be connected to the bottle at all times.

In other words, the plastic bottled drinks bought by consumers in the supermarket after July are all conjoined caps, and there is no longer the separation of the bottle body from the bottle cap. A small change in the bottle cap can not only eliminate the annoyance of drinkers, but also effectively protect the environment and reduce the spread of microplastics, which should be a good thing, but in fact, consumers do not buy it.

Conjoined caps can hit or scratch the drinker's face during use, according to the Wall Street Journal. The media quoted a social media talent in south London as saying, "every time you drink water, you are fighting with the bottle, which is really annoying." the talent said he now prefers canned drinks to plastic bottles.

In addition, some consumers said that the residual fruit juice and soda in the conjoined bottle cap will also rub against the face when in use, making it sticky. After unscrewing, it is not convenient to put the bottle cap back on the bottle, and many people report that the conjoined bottle cap will not be screwed so tightly that it leaks.

Consumers who are not used to the conjoined cap claim that they will try to separate the cap from the bottle body, but the tearing process may inevitably get dirty or get their hands dirty.

The conjoined cap is not only a new annoyance for European consumers, but also a headache for manufacturers of bottle caps. "We produce 45 million conjoined caps every year, and now we use more than 7 tons of plastic every year," said the chief executive of A.Le Coq, a major Estonian beverage manufacturer, in an interview with ERR News. "from an environmental point of view, this backfired."

Although there are a lot of media and consumer complaints about conjoined bottle caps, according to European marine garbage statistics, the proportion of plastic in EU marine garbage is as high as 85%, half of which are disposable plastic products, including many loose bottle caps. A reporter can find more than 40 plastic bottle caps 100 meters from the North Sea beach in Germany.

Once these bottle caps are accidentally eaten by animals, they can easily cause injury or even death to animals. Therefore, taking into account the protection of the environment and animals, the European Union will formulate regulations for conjoined bottle caps, hoping to reduce plastic pollution and raise public awareness of environmental protection.

Picture from: Internet

Disclaimer: some of the pictures in this article come from the network, and some of the contents of the website, such as pictures, we will respect the origin of the original copyright, but due to the large number, there will be individual pictures and texts not in time to indicate, please forgive me. If the original author has any disputes can contact the website to deal with, once verified we will immediately correct, by the "coffee workshop" collation and editing, reprint please indicate, if infringement, please inform deletion, thank you ~!