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PIL · NGT, India · Ongoing
Tethered Cap Mandate.
One small change to every plastic bottle sold in India. Keeping millions of caps out of soil, rivers, and seas.
PIL · NGT, India · Ongoing
One small change to every plastic bottle sold in India. Keeping millions of caps out of soil, rivers, and seas.
The Campaign
A tethered cap is a bottle cap that stays attached to the bottle even after opening: a simple, low-cost redesign that prevents the cap from being discarded separately into the environment.
The European Union mandated tethered caps on all single-use plastic bottles under the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, effective July 2024. India, one of the world's largest consumers of plastic bottled water, has no such requirement yet.
In 2024, Aakash Ranison filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before India's National Green Tribunal, asking the court to direct that every plastic bottle sold in India carry a tethered cap: following the EU precedent. The PIL is being represented by Advocate Narendra Pal.
Caps are among the most collected items in coastal cleanups globally. Small enough to escape waste management systems, light enough to travel far, and durable enough to persist for centuries, they cause outsized damage. Tethering them to the bottle is the most direct intervention available.
PIL
Filed before the National Green Tribunal, India
EU
Following the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, effective July 2024
Billions
Of caps sold in India every year: each a potential piece of plastic pollution
One fix
A redesign that keeps the cap on the bottle: simple, scalable, proven
Tethered Cap · The Art
Every bottle cap in these mosaics was recovered from waste. The artworks make the argument the campaign makes: through form, colour, and material.
Tethered Cap · Feb 2026
A planet rendered in concentric rings of colour. Every bottle cap in this mosaic was reclaimed from waste and pressed into a portrait of the only home we have. The work poses a simple question: what are we leaving behind?
Tethered Cap · Dec 2025
Hokusai's iconic wave, reimagined in upcycled plastic bottle caps: a large-scale mosaic asking what we leave behind in the oceans we love.
Featured in
"The Applicant has raised a grievance of plastic pollution caused by the plastic bottle caps used extensively in packaged drinking water and beverage bottles." NGT opens investigation into PET bottle lid pollution across India.
ANI News"NGT examines plastic pollution from bottle caps, seeks responses from authorities." The petition triggers official scrutiny of detachable cap waste across India.
LawStreet Journal"NGT Issues Notice to CPCB Over Environmental Pollution Caused by Detachable Plastic Bottle Caps." The tribunal seeks an affidavit response from regulators on the scale of the problem.
MENAFN"Several countries use tethered caps to ensure caps are recycled together with bottles." On the global precedent the tethered cap mandate would set for India.
Support the campaign
Visit tetheredcap.org to learn more, spread the word, and back the PIL. This is a campaign that wins with numbers. The more people who know, the harder it is to ignore.
Applicant: Aakash Ranison
Advocate: Narendra Pal
Forum: National Green Tribunal, India
Precedent: EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (2024)