News

If you recently purchased a refreshing beverage in a plastic bottle, you may have struggled slightly to take a drink.

The cap, somewhat annoyingly, might have gotten in your way, because it did not detach on opening.

Any little dribble you have experienced as a result goes right back to the EU's Single Use Plastics Directive.

The latest requirement of the directive means all plastic bottle caps have to be tethered to bottles.

According to a Department of the Environment Climate and Communications spokesperson, the new tethering system applies to all beverage containers (bottles, cartons and pouches) up to three litres in size.

"A significant volume of caps are separated from their containers after use.. and caps which are placed in recycling bins tend to be too small and too light for recycling sorting equipment to handle and typically end up as non-recycled residual waste.

"Caps account for about 15% of packaging litter, according to latest litter data published by the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System."

The spokesperson added that caps and particularly the seal rings attached to them, are also harmful to wildlife.

By preventing the separation of the cap from the container, caps are collected and recycled in far greater numbers, reducing environmental pollution, they said.

The EU’s Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive aims to reduce unintended environmental plastic waste and has already led to the banning of many single use items such as plastic coffee stirrers, plastic cotton buds and plastic plates.

It is also behind this year’s introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles.

Under the SUP Directive, all plastic bottle tops and lids have to be attached to the bottles from 3 July.

The Directive states products with plastic lids "may be placed on the market only if the lids and caps remain attached to the containers during the products’ intended end use stage."

In Ireland, many drinks manufacturers have already complied with the requirement which has led to the redesign of bottle caps, to include an additional plastic strip that makes if far more difficult to detach them.