Serial caps may become the future trend of the bottle cap market

In recent years, with the rapid development of the beverage industry, plastic packaging is widely used in production and life. According to relevant data, only China's bottled water market has reached 150 billion yuan in sales. Along with this, the impact of plastic bottles on the environment has become more and more obvious. The industry predicts that 300 million tonnes of plastic will enter the ocean in the next ten years, equivalent to 16.7 trillion plastic bottles floating in the ocean, it can be imagined that marine plastic pollution will be alarming.

EU Directive 2019/904 accelerates serial cover innovation

In May 2018, the European Union issued EU Directive 2019/904, which provides detailed regulations on the use of single-use plastic packaging products, one of which requires that by June 2024, the caps of all plastic bottles must be attached to the bottle body before they can be manufactured and sold in the EU.

The cap of the bottle cap packaging and bottle body fixed connection, the cap will no longer be randomly discarded separately, but together with the bottle body as a whole bottle for recycling, after sorting and special processing, into the new plastic products cycle. This will significantly increase the recycling of bottle caps, thereby reducing the impact on the environment, but also bring considerable economic benefits.

Industry insiders believe that by 2024 all compliant plastic bottles in Europe are using a serial cap, the number will be very large, the market space is vast.

Development of the serial cover

Connecting the cap to the bottle may sound like a simple task, but it is a major technical challenge for cap manufacturers, plastic bottle manufacturers and the associated equipment suppliers. The requirements of the beverage industry are very clear - the cap must be easy for the consumer to use and preserve freshness and quality without compromising on production costs, bottle design, neck design, filling lines and cappers. In addition, the serial closure needs to be suitable for lightweight compression caps (mainly used for packaging of non-sparkling water such as purified water) and threaded caps to meet the higher requirements for sealing performance.

Alpla Horizontal Rotary Conjoined Caps

Alpla, the world's leading manufacturer of plastic packaging, has developed a new type of end cap for the Austrian mineral water company Vöslauer.

Coca-Cola bottler - Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Public Company Limited (CCEP) - said Coca-Cola will start replacing its beverage packaging with a serial lid in Scotland, UK, from May.

Image from Coca-Cola UK

Apta has launched Maestro, a serial cap for cooking oil packaging, which is made entirely from PP/PE recyclable materials and is fitted with wide finger grooves to allow consumers to easily open the bottle with one hand.

Image from Apta

Image from Apta bottle cap manufacturer Novembal is accelerating technological innovation to provide safe, personalised and more environmentally friendly cap packaging, promoting the sustainable development of the industry and practicing the plastics circular economy.

Guangzhou Jingpin Intelligent Compression Moulding Technology Co., Ltd (Jingpin Compression Moulding) adheres to the concept of environmental protection and green ecology, and the layout of serial cap equipment will soon be listed.

Bottle cap as an important part of beverage packaging, play a role in protecting product quality and shaping product personality. In recent years, the beverage industry is highly competitive, in order to better meet the product's individual needs, beverage companies in the bottle cap up and down the effort, the suppliers also launched a different function and form of plastic bottle cap accordingly, so that not only to adapt to the needs of the product, but also to the enterprise to bring more opportunities.