Tethered caps

Compliance with Directive 2019/904

Compliance with Directive 2019/904

The reduction of the impact of plastic products on the environment has been a hot topic in the recent years and has been characterized by the active involvement of many authorities and institutions all over the world. This has also happened in the European Union, that gave its active contribution in June 2019 with the publication of Directive 2019/904, popularly known as the single-use plastics directive, in order to reduce the amount of single-plastic items, most often found on Europe's beaches and seas, and promote circular approaches.
This directive provides the ban on some disposable plastic items, establishes the minimum recyclate percentage in plastic beverage bottles (25% as of 2025 and 30% as of 2030) and states that closures of PET bottles must be firmly attached to the container. The aim of this last provision is to recycle the cap together with the bottle and to avoid that caps end up as waste in the environment.
SMI is aware of the challenges posed by this directive to the beverage manufactures and is at their sides, in order to help them comply with this regulation, whose measures will enter into force in June 2024.
In this regard, SMI offers:

  • solutions capable of producing containers with a percentage of recyclate in compliance with directive 2019/904 (SMI blow moulders can produce even 100 % recyclable PET bottles)
  • support for evaluating the right tethered cap solution, according to the customers' needs and the production requirements
  • services for designing containers, with any shape and weight, in full respect of the new directive in terms of percentage of recyclate, as well as tethered cap solutions