Coca-Cola Germany starts converting beverage caps for all non-refillable PET bottles

Implementation of an EU requirement that caps must remain on the bottle

03-Nov-2021 - Germany

From the beginning of November 2021, Coca-Cola in Germany will begin the gradual changeover to new caps on all non-refillable PET bottles. In doing so, Coca-Cola is implementing an EU requirement that plastic beverage caps on non-refillable bottles must remain on the bottle after opening by July 3, 2024. Coca-Cola is using the changeover as an opportunity to optimize the overall use of materials in the bottles. Coca-Cola in Germany can thus save up to 1.37 grams of plastic per bottle with the new closures.

Conversion period of two and a half years

Coca-Cola is starting the changeover to the new closures at an early stage to ensure that the EU requirement is implemented in Germany by July 2024. The starting point will be the bottling plant in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, in November 2021, followed in 2022 by the non-refillable PET lines at the sites in Mannheim, Mönchengladbach, Hildesheim and Knetzgau. By January 2024, all German plants with non-refillable PET lines will successively convert their production to bottles with the new closures. To ensure a smooth process, this will take place in no more than five plants per year.

Due to the long-term changeover phase, non-refillable PET bottles with both the previous type of closure and the new closures will be on the market for a while. In order to draw consumers' attention to the new closures, the caps will be marked with the inscription "Let me have it!

The previous opening mechanism will not change. In future, however, the new caps will remain connected to a part of the safety ring on the neck of the bottle. For convenient consumption, the cap can be opened and closed easily and moved back and forth. In addition, it can be fixed in one position to allow convenient pouring.

Return to the recycling loop

As before, the PET non-returnable bottles with the new caps, including the cap, can be handed in via reverse vending machines throughout Germany. Thanks to the deposit system, the valuable material can thus be collected and recycled. In Germany, over 90 percent of bottle caps are already collected in this way.

"As the largest beverage producer in the world, Coca-Cola is aware of its responsibility and uses its levers for sustainable change. We have taken the EU regulation as an opportunity to optimize our closures overall and develop a new, material-saving solution. We are continuously working on our packaging and looking for new ways to save material and make it even more environmentally friendly in line with our sustainability goals," says Tilmann Rothammer, Managing Director Customer Service & Supply Chain, Coca-Cola European Partners Germany. As part of its overall sustainability strategy, Coca-Cola in Germany is already saving around 57,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2021.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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