EUROPE – French packaging solutions provider Sidel has partnered with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) to launch tethered caps for the latter’s polyethene terephthalate (PET) bottles.
The launch of attached caps and the implementation of a new lighter neck, with 1-gram savings, was associated with risks like choosing the proper preforms, caps, and equipment configurations to switch across all CCEP’s existing PET packaging lines in Europe.
In the planning phase, pilot tests for the new product were handled on two different lines, including one Sidel line in Barcelona.
The line was modified to support both tethered capping and the new, lighter neck GME30.40 that was developed and made available for industry, Sidel said.
With the help of these tests, both firms were able to assess the new requirements and the new equipment configuration to ensure maximum line efficiency.
The results also helped to validate the quality requirements of the new necks and enable CCEP to carry out a small-scale market evaluation to know consumer acceptance.
CCEP Technical Packaging lead Geert Marse said: “The combined project management between CCEP and Sidel was key to the success of the project.
“Anticipation, planning and collaboration between stakeholders were vital in readying these lines. We released the first sellable bottles on the Great Britain market in May 2022, as we had scheduled. The pilot in Barcelona helped us to learn and identify any potential issues together.”
Upon completion of the Barcelona pilot tests, CCEP hired Sidel to convert all its Sidel lines across the European plants.
As per the packaging firm, the first line which was converted was completed in April last year in East Kilbride, Scotland. The line produced CCEP’s 1.5L bottle before a second single-serve line was completed at the end of 2022.
As of now, Sidel has successfully modified one-third of CCEP’s European PET lines for CSDs. The final line conversion is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
In March this year, CCEP also partnered with Berry Global Group on tethered cap initiative, which will make them less likely to be littered and more likely to be recycled.
To this point, over 400 million tethered caps have been applied on Coca-Cola bottling lines in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and the project is expected to expand into other European countries as well.
Given EU Directive 2019/204, a statute that requires plastic beverage bottles up to 3 liters in size to have tethered closures throughout their intended use from July 2024, Coca-Cola has taken the opportunity to embrace these new regulations as part of the company’s goal to make its packaging 100% recyclable by 2025.
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