From July 3, 2024, all EU states – such as France and Italy – must only sell bottled beverages that have attached caps.

This means people are no longer able to twist off a bottle cap as they please; instead, the new design ensures an extra strip of plastic connects the cap to the bottle.

On Reddit, one person commented on the change: “I literally hate these so much. I’m in Italy and some of the water bottles have caps similar to these and they always scratch my nose when I’m drinking. I always end up tearing it off either way.”

Another posted: “I can never screw the cap on properly with these. It always feels askew.

“Also, I would always recycle my bottles by taking the caps off and putting them in the bin separately.

“Thats not really a problem, but I liked my little routine of unscrewing them, throwing them in the bin and then squashing the bottle down.”

Somebody else “didn’t notice” the attachment, as they tore it off, but “then proceeded to cut [their] lip on the little plastic sharp piece left from tearing off the cap”.

On social media platform X, EU Environment explained why the change in the law was a necessity.

“Animals get sick and die because of plastic pollution,” posted EU Environment. “Plastic caps/lids are found two to three times more often than bottles and animals confuse them with food.

“Attaching caps to bottles reduces plastic pollution and prevents them from being eaten by animals.”

One displeased consumer, John Carvalho, opined: “This is so stupid and pointless. Get fired.”

Although his reaction seems to be directed to the EU Environment poster on “drinking from a bottle for dummies” rather than the EU law itself.

Really not a fan of the change was Olaf, who said the EU is “making your lives worse one regulation at a time”.

Django added: “I am always removing the cap and I will keep doing it.” Lorenzo Bolis slammed the change as a “useless EU regulation”.

Somebody else protested: “As if this will save the sea turtles.” However, some people could see the benefit of the new law.

Dr Jill Belch said: “Great EU legislation. Cap stays on bottle, less litter, more recycled. It’s an EU directive.

“Good that the UK is now such a small unimportant market since Brexit, that some of these excellent EU directives will wash over here by proxy. Already these seen in Scotland.”