Food packaging and processing company Tetra Pak is launching tethered caps on its carton packages. This is a step towards the company’s long-term goal for recyclable design, with five new tethered cap solutions to be introduced across Ireland, the Baltics, Spain and Germany – something the company claims is a “market first” for these regions. 

Tethered caps play an important role in preventing litter, as the cap will stay attached to the package once they are opened and also during use. According to the company, they could also help reduce the carbon footprint of the carton when they are chosen to be made from polymers derived from responsibly sourced sugarcane.

“Starting with these five new introductions, we are planning to equip approximately 300 packaging lines with tethered caps in Europe by the end of 2022,” said Marco Marchetti, Vice President Packaging Materials, Sales and Distribution Solutions at Tetra Pak. “Considering the scale of change required across the value chain, early collaborations like these are putting the food and beverage industry on a fast track to accelerate the transition to a low carbon circular economy.”

“We are delighted to be supplying a number of customers with tethered cap solutions, helping them to ‘walk the talk’ towards their sustainability ambitions,” said Julia Luscher, Vice President Marketing at Tetra Pak. “Understanding our customers’ needs and having collected consumer insights through multiple pieces of research across various markets, our new tethered caps have been designed to enhance convenience. For instance, they are easy to open and re-close for subsequent consumption, while featuring carefully sized diameters for smooth pouring and drinking.”

The company has also invested towards other steps in making the company more sustainable, and enhancing customer experience. Commenting on this, Marchetti said: “We are on a journey towards creating the world’s most sustainable food package, a carton that is fully made from responsibly sourced renewable or recycled materials, is fully recyclable and carbon-neutral.

“We are ramping up investment in the development of alternative solutions across our packaging portfolio such as tethered caps and other drink-from systems, to reduce littering while increasing the renewable share of our cartons.

“In total, we are investing around €400 million in the development and roll-out of tethered cap solutions, including a €100 million investment last year in our Châteaubriant plant in France to accelerate the production of tethered closures. By working seamlessly across multiple project streams and covering approximately 40 different packages with tethered caps, we expect to sell over 1.5 billion such closures by year end.”

This development “paves the way for Europe-based customers to stay ahead of schedule and meet the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive coming into force by 2024”, according to the Swedish-Swiss company.

According to Alpla Group, a plastic manufacturer, tethered caps will become part of day-to-day life for consumers in the EU by 2024. This is due to an EU directive, which is aims to reduce the number of caps lost.