Harrogate Spring Water is transitioning to tethered caps on our full plastic bottle range from May 2024.
What is a Tethered Cap?
A tethered cap or T-cap is designed to stay attached to the bottle when it’s opened, consumed and recycled. Leaving the cap attached means you don’t have to hold it in your hand, and don’t risk dropping or losing it!
Why are we moving to a Tethered Cap?
There is a new EU regulation from July 2024 requiring caps to remain attached to bottles. Although Great Britain has not adopted this regulation, Harrogate Spring distributes products through airlines and onward travel to the EU which falls into scope of this legislation.
In addition, having the cap attached to the bottle helps ensure that the cap stays attached for recycling, which can increase the number of bottled drink caps which get recycled. Removing the caps can cause them to be improperly sorted in the recycling process. Because of their small size, individual caps can even get lost in nature, so they end up as litter and are no longer kept in the recycling loop.
Step 1
Open in the usual way by twisting the cap left (anti-clockwise) to open
Step 2
Push the cap back and angle so the cap is on the left or right which will help ensure that it’s not in the way whilst drinking
Step 3
Pour or drink from the bottle!
Step 4
Close the lid with a click and twist to the right (clockwise) to close.
We hope that the new cap will make it more convenient to drink from – leaving it attached so that you don’t have to hold it in your hand, and don’t risk dropping or losing it.
Why is the cap attached to the bottle?
There is a new EU regulation from July 2024 requiring caps to remain attached to bottles. Although Great Britain has not adopted this regulation, Harrogate Spring distributes products through airlines and onward travel to the EU which falls into scope of this legislation. Having the cap attached to the bottle helps ensure that the cap stays attached for recycling, which can increase the number of bottled drink caps which get recycled. Removing the caps can cause them to be improperly sorted in the recycling process. Because of their small size, individual caps can even get lost in nature, so they end up as litter and are no longer kept in the recycling loop.
Are tethered caps recyclable?
Yes, tethered caps, as well as our previous caps, are made of HDPE, a material that is recyclable.
How do I recycle?
Please recycle the full bottle as normal with the cap on. We’ve been asking consumers to leave the cap on when they recycle for a number of years (through on pack recycling labels, with the instruction to ‘recycle bottle – cap on’) – so our advice hasn‘t changed and attaching the caps to the bottles is a step to ensure this happens.
Why do some Harrogate bottles have a tethered cap and others don’t?
Because of how we produce our water bottles in the factory, some formats will be moving from non-tethered caps to tethered caps at different times than others. For this reason, you might see some bottles in market that already have a tethered cap, while others don’t yet. It might also depend on the level of stock that different stores hold which is why consumers will see a gradual transition to the new tethered caps in the market.
