imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Vangerowstraße 33 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 info@petpla.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Anthony Withers WikiPETia. info petplanet@petpla.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@petpla.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@petpla.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur | exprim.de Matthias Gaumann READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@petpla.net PRINT Chroma Druck Eine Unternehmung der Limberg-Druck GmbH Danziger Platz 6 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | www.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ subscription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 04/22 www.petpla.net Dear readers, You and I, who work with PET bottles on a daily basis, are often met with quizzical looks and good-natured ribbing when we display our expert knowledge of bottles amongst friends and acquaintances. For example, as I reflect during a break for coffee and cake on the savings made in material over the years and the challenges involved in labelling, or the sheer volumes produced by cap and preform machines, I realise that more can be done to address the public’s perception of packaging and PET in particular. In addition, we are now faced with the introduction of the tethered cap in 2024 and when I mention this in private conversations, some people shake their heads in disbelief at what they see as political over-regulation. Nevertheless, we as an industry need to rise to this challenge and bring the customer along with us. An incident that occurred during a private function convinced me that we cannot afford to wait. During this season’s first barbecue, Coca-Cola was served as well as beer and wine. Quite by chance, our host brought along new 0.33 litre bottles from the Berlin plant. Coca-Cola European Partners Berlin are one of the first German companies that have dared to offer tethered caps to their end customer. The words “Leave me on for recycling” are written in large letters on the cap. Unfortunately, none of the guests at the barbecue noticed these words. Two men pulled the cap off completely while two women only removed one attachment, which meant that the closure was still hanging on one strip. I naturally took advantage of the situation to interview these four individuals. All of them found the attached cap annoying, believing that a production fault was responsible for the cap not coming off properly. The women were also not too pleased that the partially attached cap was dangling in their faces whilst drinking. No-one realised that the cap can be folded to the side. Surely the consumer will have learned how to handle the cap better by 2024 but after the evening’s barbecue, this seems to be a distant hope. I have to say that I applaud Coca-Cola’s bold move on behalf of the whole industry and that we can all benefit from their experience when operating on the market. I will hopefully have better experiences to report after closing the barbecue season in late autumn. Yours sincerely, Alexander Büchler
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