Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) is introducing tethered caps to its soft drinks range in the UK and Ireland to reduce littering and make them easier to recycle.

Correspondence from a wholesale source seen by Better Retailing said the supplier’s range – including Lucozade Energy, Lucozade Sport, Ribena, Fit Water and Orangina – will be transitioning to the new caps between March and June 2024, but that some lines had already begun appearing.

Commenting on the rollout, SBF GB&I’s head of external affairs and sustainability, Fraser McIntosh, said: “The sustainability of our packaging, and what happens to it when it’s empty, is hugely important to us. We are going far beyond the EU regulation for tethered caps by making this change to our plastic drinks bottles across the whole of our European operations, including the UK where it’s not mandatory.

Coca-Cola extends attached caps rollout to select 500ml bottles

“Bottle caps are often discarded, but by attaching them we are reducing the potential for them to be littered and also making sure they are captured and sorted during the recycling process. We design our packaging for circularity and the introduction of tethered caps is our latest step towards making our drinks more sustainable. Tethered caps will be introduced across our full soft drinks bottle range in Great Britain and Ireland over the next couple of months and we’ll be communicating this change to consumers through our social media channels and point of sale.”

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) is the other major supplier to have made a transition to tethered bottle caps, doing so across select 1.5l and 500ml lines in its range.

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