United Caps, LyondellBasell unveil tethered closures at K

Luxembourg caps and closures specialist United Caps and plastics supplier LyondellBasell have unveiled a range of tethered closure solutions developed in response to tighter European regulations on single-use plastics.
 
The new solutions comply with the European Union’s single use plastics directive, which requires beverage bottles to have closures tethered to the bottle for proper disposal, as of 2024.
 
The red-colured solutions, which on display during K2019 earlier this month, use LyondellBasell’s Purell GC 7260G and Hostalen 5231H materials, United Caps said in a news release.
 
Purell GC 7260G is a high-density polyethylene material used as the benchmark grade for still beverage closures. The material exhibits good flowability and high rigidity, and excellent organoleptic properties.
 
Hostalen 5231H, also an HDPE grade, is an innovative material for light weight closures. Developed through LyondellBasell’s catalyst technology, the Hostalen 5231H features very high stress cracking resistance.
 
The color of the closure was obtained using LyondellBasell’s polybatch color masterbatch.
 
“We are excited to have contributed together with United Caps to designing a new packaging solution that complies with the EU plastic strategy,”  Gianluca Brescia, director of polyethylene Europe at LyondellBasell, said.
 
Tethered closures, according to said United Caps CEO Benoit Henckes are expected to be pivotal in changing public attitudes toward the use of single-use plastic as well as littering.
 
“But they do present challenges for the industry, specifically around cost of closures and the ease with which they can be integrated into the production process, including the potential need for retooling bottling machines,” Henckes added.
 
To address the issue, the company said it “spearheaded” the Alliance for Closure Tethering (ACT) to bring together segment leaders in the packaging industry to study various tethering solutions and their impact on existing neck finishes.