Cole Sinanian
IF you’ve drank a coke in the past few weeks, you may have been irked to find it nearly impossible to remove the bottle cap completely, potentially leading to awkward drinking manoeuvres or slaps in the face upon taking your first sip.
But fear not, you aren’t alone.
The irksome feature isn’t a design flaw — it is an intentional move meant to discourage consumers from throwing bottle caps in the trash.
The new design regulation went into effect July 3 as part of a far-reaching EU directive approved in May 2019 to help prevent plastic waste from ending up in the ocean.
It mandates that producers update their designs to ensure caps remain attached to the bottle, enacts total bans on single-use plastics — like straws, silverware, plates, and cups — where alternatives are cheap and accessible, sets a timeline for increasing the use of recycled plastics, sets waste-management obligations for producers, and introduces measures to discourage plastic consumption, such as through labelling on plastic products.
Then-Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs, and Fisheries Karmenu Vella summarised the directive’s predicted benefits at the time of its passage:
“The single-use plastics legislation will address 70 percent of marine litter items, avoiding environmental damage that would otherwise cost €22 billion by 2030,” the Maltese politician said in 2019.
The bottle cap rule, which applies to containers up to three litres, took five years to go into effect.
The regulations are part of a wider EU plan to preserve natural resources and minimise pressure on the natural environment while maintaining economic competitiveness through the transition to a climate-neutral “circular economy.”
Coca-Cola’s design attaches the cap with a thick strip of plastic that’s difficult to remove without destroying the bottle itself.
This design is common as Coke products are widespread throughout the EU, although other companies may adopt different designs.
Despite its sustainable objectives, the directive has sparked online ire.
“EU mandated bottle cap holders are the cookie pop ups of the real world,” wrote X user @thepanta82.
“Every time you break a tethered bottle cap off you destroy an entire decade of EU ‘innovation,’” wrote @lnbc10m.
Still, others hit back at critics for getting their knickers twisted over something so trivial as a tiny strip of plastic attached to their soft drinks, chalking the hatred up to veiled anti-Europe sentiment.
“Imagine being so inept, so clumsy, so unable to learn new stuff that a bottle cap frustrates and humiliates you,” added @sunlightnstars.
READ MORE
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