Attached caps and lids
Small parts like caps and lids should be attached to prevent littering.
How?
By ensuring that caps and lids remain attached to the main packaging during and after use, the risk of them going astray is reduced.
Starting July 3, 2024, caps must be attached to beverage containers according to the single-use plastics directive.
Read more at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s website
Attached caps and lids
Good examples
The attached cap on the packaging reduces the risk of littering by ensuring that no loose parts end up in nature.
Good examples
Previously, Smarties had a plastic cap and end, but these have now been removed and replaced with a monomaterial design with a hinge. This reduces the risk of littering as no loose parts can end up in nature.
Why is it important?
Caps from single-use food and drink packaging consumed on the go have a high risk of becoming litter. Caps and lids are among the individual items most often found during clean-up actions/litter surveys.
It is against this backdrop that the single-use plastics directive requires single-use beverage packaging to be designed in a way that ensures that caps/lids remain attached to the packaging during use.
As of July 3, 2024, it will be mandatory for all beverage containers under three liters that contain plastic to have a cap that is attached to the packaging.
Read more about the ordinance here (in Swedish only)
Did you know...
In the national litter survey carried out some years ago by Keep Sweden TIdy Foundation, the results from the city centers of the municipalities’ central locations showed that almost 130,000 loose caps and lids had been thrown away in a single week. Plastic bottle caps are a common type of litter on beaches along the west coast of Sweden. On average, 144 caps per 100 meters of beach were found in 2024, and in 2025 the number was almost as high, with an average of 136 caps.
Read more about caps on Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation’s website.
