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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To hate the new attached bottle caps

134 replies

Hocuspoc · 19/03/2025 19:48

Honestly, it is a horrible design - the hanging cap makes it close to impossible to pour out a drink without it getting the liquid into the cap - meaning you need to wipe off the bottle after screwing it back on (if it's say milk or juice).
Also makes the flow more likely to go down the bottleneck too. Not to mention trying to drink out of the bottle with the cap still attached and getting in the way.
Pretty much you need both hands now for a simple task of pouring out or drinking out of a bottle !! One hand to keep the cap out of the way.
Just constantly annoying - I started cutting them off. I never lost a bottle cap in my life - who is this made for?

Apologies for the rant, but I am wondering what am I missing here.

OP posts:
Smallsalt · 20/03/2025 09:36

Also the new rim round the top of the cap means you can't grip the lid. They are so tight that I can't get them open. I am thinking of getting a gadget from one of the old people catalogues!

FlowerFlowerFlower · 20/03/2025 09:41

Yes I hate them and my kids struggle to put them on properly then the drink spills 😒

bloodredfeaturewall · 20/03/2025 09:57

yabu
I love them. no more dropped cals.
if you push them all the way they don't flip onto your nose.

MinticecreamwithaCherryonTop · 20/03/2025 09:57

Hayley1256 · 19/03/2025 23:54

Hate them! They've put them on milkshake bottles so when you drink it on the go from the bottle you have to watch out for the little bit in the lid spilling on you! I rip them all off now

Edited

Yes, and once you've ripped it off, there is a little sharp part that can catch your mouth. I will try the tipping it all of the way back as some pps are suggesting. I have also had some where the plastic bottle is so thin and flimsy, that the force required just to flip the cap to open it, means it splashes all over.

DappledThings · 20/03/2025 10:01

I don't get the problem with them. You just push it to the other side if you want to drink from a bottle and you can still close it, just lift it a little higher to get the angle.

Gowlett · 20/03/2025 10:04

I always just rip them off.
Then screw them back on.

joanofaardvark · 20/03/2025 10:04

DappledThings · 20/03/2025 10:01

I don't get the problem with them. You just push it to the other side if you want to drink from a bottle and you can still close it, just lift it a little higher to get the angle.

But the ‘juice’ stays gathered in the cap, whatever its position…. Until you tip it to drink it when it drips down your front.

BeholdOurButterStinketh · 20/03/2025 10:04

AllLopsided · 19/03/2025 22:44

Yes they've been around for ages, but they still give me the rage. They are on large fruit juice bottles and milk bottles here too - they are ridiculously difficult to do back up after I've put 25ml of milk in my tea Hmm And who walks down the street swigging from a litre bottle of milk?

I take great pleasure in cutting them off and putting the caps and plastic threads separately into the recycling, in the hopes that the whole thing will be deemed a failure by the powers that be...

That's even more ridiculous if they put them on large bottles that you only normally use at home.

The main argument is around smaller 'one serving' bottles that people often drink when out and about; what on earth can be the justification for a large milk carton that you take from the fridge, open, use a bit and then close before returning to the fridge - or large squash bottles?

Snugglemonkey · 20/03/2025 10:13

sanityisamyth · 19/03/2025 20:50

This. The separated lids fall through the machine which sorts the rubbish out so they didn’t get recycled. Ripping them off undoes all the work that has gone into designing and manufacturing them to be attached.

Then I think fixing the machine issue would be a better solution! I separate them because of spillages and drinks going flat. This stops the wastage created by the stupid caps. Even if a cap is not recycled, it is better that than all the extra bottles being used.

BeardofHagrid · 20/03/2025 10:15

The first thing I do is cut them off.

DappledThings · 20/03/2025 10:17

joanofaardvark · 20/03/2025 10:04

But the ‘juice’ stays gathered in the cap, whatever its position…. Until you tip it to drink it when it drips down your front.

This has never happened to me. How is juice getting in the cap? It's upside down when it's closed, then you open it and it's tipped up and pushed to the side.

eurochick · 20/03/2025 10:19

They are very irritating. As others have said if you get a juice or smoothie type drink it sticks in the lid and then drips down your clothes when you drink.

It really seems to me that this is a sledgehammer - nut solution. Out of all the issues facing the world today who came up with this as the one to fix? And then messed up the “fix” by putting in place this terrible idea?

BeholdOurButterStinketh · 20/03/2025 10:19

I think this design is very much a symptom of somebody in a closed room solving a potentially negative result of people using something carelessly whilst remaining completely oblivious to the reason why and how people use them in the first place.

The classic example of this is those taps in public toilets that you have to push down for water to come out - not the genuinely genius ones that give you 15 seconds of water with one press but the ones where, the instant you stop pushing down, the water supply slams closed.

Did this design significantly reduce the amount of water wastage from people leaving taps on after using them? Yes, great result; well done! Did it render the taps frustrating, no longer fit for purpose and thus cause people to not bother using them at all in the first place? Sadly, also yes.

I agree that, like so many things, they've made it less useful and more irritating for the people who behave well, whilst the people who simply don't care will just continue not to care. It's all very well designing them so that the lids get recycled at the same time as the bottles, but that's all a bit pointless if you're the kind of selfish idiot who just chucks your empty drinks bottle in the canal or pushes them into somebody's hedge, rather than actually bothering to keep them until there's a recycling bin.

BeholdOurButterStinketh · 20/03/2025 10:29

The elephant in the room would be simply returning to the old bottle deposit scheme, whereby you pay an extra amount on top of the price of the drink and then later return the bottle to any participating retailer for your money back or, effectively, to 'carry forward' your deposit to your next bottle.

We wouldn't need to return to glass bottles; I can't see why it wouldn't work with modern plastic bottles as well.

The additional benefit is that the bottles then become worth something, so even if the idiots who bought them just chuck them on the ground, somebody else can spot them, pick them up and then earn themselves a few quid over a relatively short space of time.

MissRoseDurward · 20/03/2025 10:41

The additional benefit is that the bottles then become worth something, so even if the idiots who bought them just chuck them on the ground, somebody else can spot them, pick them up and then earn themselves a few quid over a relatively short space of time.

Kids used to earn pocket money by collecting the glass bottles and taking them back to the shop.

Schools and charities could organise litter picks and make a bit of money at the same time.

I don't buy bottled drinks very often, and I regard it as a treat when I do, so I wouldn't notice or mind a few pence more on the price.

lulalalala · 20/03/2025 10:50

There is a good reason behind it -plastic bottles lids end up in rivers and oceans and end up being swallowed by marine life.

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/comment-why-plastic-bottles-now-have-their-caps-attached

Barleypilaf · 20/03/2025 10:58

They are to stop marine life choking to death on the bottle cap.

So yes, they are annoying, but YABU as they stop fish and birds having a painful death.

BeholdOurButterStinketh · 20/03/2025 10:59

lulalalala · 20/03/2025 10:50

There is a good reason behind it -plastic bottles lids end up in rivers and oceans and end up being swallowed by marine life.

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/comment-why-plastic-bottles-now-have-their-caps-attached

Obviously nobody wants the marine life to be harmed, but it's infuriating that a very small number of people then make something as simple as using a drink bottle a lot more difficult, irritating, awkward, less efficient than it should be for so, so many decent people.

Even people who don't bother recycling plastic bottles will usually put them in a normal bin rather than tossing them somewhere dangerous to wildlife.

I put all of my used plastic bottles in an appropriate recycling bin, so if they are getting into the oceans, that's the council's irresponsibility and not mine - much as they like to apportion the blame for this to all of us who just responsibly use (and dispose of) them.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 20/03/2025 11:03

They're awful when you have arthritis. Too narrow, too sharp, need too much dexterity to put them back on again if by some miracle you manage to open them, assisstive aids don't work with them.

Trekker77 · 20/03/2025 11:35

I used to have issues with these lids when they first came out but there is a way of using them that means I now think they are great. So when opening the lids you open and push them back until they stick. This means no liquid gets in the cap and the cap is fully clear of when you drink. When you are replacing the lid you pull it up slightly stretching the attached plastic and then the lid closes really easy. Now I do it without thinking and it is easier than it used to be before the attached lids. Please try it.

stoow · 20/03/2025 11:39

You can snap them off you know.

Ursulla · 20/03/2025 11:42

They are annoying. I never had a bottle leak before these were introduced; now it's happened several times. I think the caps being narrower means they don't thread properly.

Surely the answer to plastic waste is to use less plastic, not to continue to make plastic items that are shit.

As ever with these green washing bright ideas - like cream cartons with no lids FFS - it means more mess and inconvenience for the end customer. Or, in the case of plastic bags, just straight up increased cost.

stoow · 20/03/2025 11:43

BeholdOurButterStinketh · 20/03/2025 10:29

The elephant in the room would be simply returning to the old bottle deposit scheme, whereby you pay an extra amount on top of the price of the drink and then later return the bottle to any participating retailer for your money back or, effectively, to 'carry forward' your deposit to your next bottle.

We wouldn't need to return to glass bottles; I can't see why it wouldn't work with modern plastic bottles as well.

The additional benefit is that the bottles then become worth something, so even if the idiots who bought them just chuck them on the ground, somebody else can spot them, pick them up and then earn themselves a few quid over a relatively short space of time.

They are doing so eventually, though the date keeps being pushed back.
The countries where I have seen this scheme, use a reverse vending machine, pop the bottles into a chute, scanned and get a money off coupon to redeem against new bottles. Though only works if the label and barcode are attached.

stoow · 20/03/2025 11:44

Ursulla · 20/03/2025 11:42

They are annoying. I never had a bottle leak before these were introduced; now it's happened several times. I think the caps being narrower means they don't thread properly.

Surely the answer to plastic waste is to use less plastic, not to continue to make plastic items that are shit.

As ever with these green washing bright ideas - like cream cartons with no lids FFS - it means more mess and inconvenience for the end customer. Or, in the case of plastic bags, just straight up increased cost.

Get stretchy silicone lids.

Ursulla · 20/03/2025 11:49

stoow · 20/03/2025 11:44

Get stretchy silicone lids.

Design packaging that does what it needs to.

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