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Capri-Sun with a paper straw? Company owner Hans-Peter Wild is annoyed.
KEYSTONE
The makers of the sugary drink Capri-Sun have failed in their petition, which was intended to pressure the EU into allowing plastic straws again. The company owner now admits that the campaign was handled incorrectly.
Capri-Sun has been campaigning since 2020 for the reintroduction of plastic straws: In August 2024, the brand even launched a petition on Change.org to that effect. The goal: to collect one million signatures.
The company was founded under the name Capri-Sonne by Rudolf Wild in Baden-Württemberg. Today, the company is headquartered in Baar, Canton of Zug, and is led by Hans-Peter Wild, one of Rudolf Wild’s two sons. He has lived in Switzerland for 37 years. “The plastic straw ban is well-intentioned, but in our case, it makes absolutely no sense,” the owner told the *Sonntagszeitung* in August 2024 .
However, the attempt to put pressure on the EU and its straw regulation failed spectacularly: after gathering just over 169,000 signatures, the petition has now been closed. “The petition was poorly crafted and flawed—just as an aside,” Hans-Peter Wild says angrily in the *Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung*.
And the billionaire reiterates what he told the Swiss newspaper at the time: “On the merits of the case, the demand for paper drinking straws makes absolutely no sense.” Customers would complain, he says: Paper straws would become too soft and alter the taste of the drink.
“Capri Sun’s ongoing fight for single-use plastic straws is incomprehensible from an environmental perspective and a sign of failure,” says Viola Wohlgemuth of Deutsche Umwelthilfe, expressing her lack of understanding regarding Capri Sun. “The small drink pouches are designed primarily for consumption on the go and, as a result, often end up in the environment.”
Capri Sun faces criticism not only because of the waste it generates but also because of the high sugar content in its drinks.
