Emil Kolev: A small cap can bring a significant change for our world

The Bankia Plant Manager answers the questions of Dnes.bg

Coca-Cola System in Bulgaria recently announced that it has started a phased introduction of bottle caps for all its beverages in plastic bottles, but Bankya mineral water was the first to undertake this innovation more than a year ago. Have you achieved what you expected?

We are extremely proud that Bankya Mineral Water was a pioneer in introducing this innovation. We took on this challenge two years before it became mandatory for all beverage producers in the European Union because we strongly believe that collecting the bottle together with the cap and recycling the entire package contributes to less waste in nature and is another small but important step towards our common better and cleaner future.

A month ago we also started our phased switch to attached caps to PET bottles for our entire soft drinks portfolio. The innovation is in response to the requirements of the EU Single Use Plastics Directive, which come into force in 2024 and which we are strictly complying with.

Of course, there are some people who find the changes harder to accept, whatever their nature, but in the case of the attached cap, it's all very easy - we simply open the cap, leave it attached to the bottle, drink our drink, re-close and dispose of all the packaging for recycling in the designated yellow containers. In short - we enjoy and do good.

We also know that many consumers are concerned about how this change will affect the Caps for the Future campaign and it is important to mention here that as a responsible company, we will continue to comply with European legislation. At the same time, we welcome the efforts of the organisers of Caps for the Future to collect all types of plastic, as well as the bottle and can collection campaigns they have already initiated. We believe that our goal is common - that more and more packaging will be collected and recycled. It is important that they do not end up in nature, but in plastic recycling containers.

The full interview with Emil Kolev can be found here.