How the plastic bottle cap became a parable for the value of EU regulation | Alberto Alemanno

Most if not all regulations have a good reason behind them. Look at the charging ports for phones and laptops for example.

Or just look at the USA. Their rivers were literally burning some decades ago. Sure the companies could make more money by polluting everything, but companies shouldn't be the main focus of a country or a union.

I'd rather have too many regulations than none.

But companies such as Coca-Cola also did something revealing: while they trumpeted the design of the new caps as a sign of their unwavering commitment to sustainability, they maintained the detachable ones virtually everywhere else.

Colour me surprised.

As an avid weekend hiker that often brings a bag with me for picking garbage that people leave in nature I am very happy about the new regulation. Nowadays most bottles come with the cap attached which otherwise would be easily missed.

It's so much better to have this as an EU regulation instead of each country creating their own. Imagine 3 or for different standards about how that would need to be. At least we have only one standard, that's the beauty of EU

I really hated the attached caps at the beginning but companies eventually figured out how to make them pretty well. Now they're not too bad to use

It's one of those examples that makes you think that many of the people around you are just giant toddlers in adult bodies. It's a minor thing. You can easily drink out of a bottle with them. You can rip them off. It totally makes sense to have this regulation. People are crying like little babies about it.

I want standardized power sockets and plugs in Europe.