Environmentally Friendly Tamper-Evident Safety Closure

Abstract

Environmentally-friendly tamper-evident safety closures used on various containers and are optionally personally identifiable are disclosed. The invention includes a combination of a semi or fully perforated retaining ring and cap, and an un-perforated section between the two that acts as a tether keeping both pieces from separating after the tamper evident perforations have been broken loose. The tether portion is designed to stretch without breaking to allow the removal of the cap from the bottle.

1 . A personally identifiable container comprising:
 a container, comprising a closed bottom section, a cylindrical wall section, and an open section which has cylindrical walls, comprising an interior wall section which defines an opening, and an exterior wall section which additionally comprises container threads, and   a personal identification device attached to the container, the personal identification device including means for manipulation, whereby a user of the container can manipulate the personal identification device such that the personal identification device identifies that particular container as belonging to the user,   wherein the personal identification device is a removable container cap,   whereby the removable container cap comprises a cap portion and a retaining ring portion, where the cap portion comprises a cylindrical wall section with an inner surface and an outer surface, and a closed top, and where the inner surface of the cylindrical wall section has threads that mate with the container threads, and additionally comprising a perforated section, where the perforated section has a plurality of perforations, and where the perforated section extends around at least a majority of a circumference of the closure device, and where the perforated section is capable of being broken by a twisting motion applied to the closure device, additionally comprising a tether, where the tether is capable of maintaining a connection between the cap portion and the retaining ring portion after the perforated section has been broken, and whereby a user of the container can manipulate the personal identification device such that the personal identification device identifies that particular container as belonging to the user.   
   
   
       2 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , where the tether is a contiguous portion of the closure device. 
   
   
       3 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , wherein the container cap has a semi-malleable surface embedded within its top surface for allowing a user to scratch identifying marks therein. 
   
   
       4 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , wherein the personal identification device comprises a sticker, where the sticker contains a malleable identification area, where the malleable identification area comprises an outer surface upon which the means for manipulation is located, and an inner surface which contains an adhesive surface which will adhere to the section of the container upon which the sticker is intended to be affixed. 
   
   
       5 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , wherein the personal identification device comprises a promotional label which can be affixed to the container cap and has means by which a user can selectively tear off or peel off indicia to identify that particular container as his or hers. 
   
   
       6 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , wherein the personal identification device comprises a label which is painted, sprayed, or adhered to the surface of the container by another permanent means, and the label additionally comprises an embedded, semi-malleable surface attached to the top surface of the label for allowing a user to scratch identifying marks therein. 
   
   
       7 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , wherein the personal identification device comprises an indicia field having a combination of numbers, letters, or other symbols that can be used for identification purposes on the outer surface thereon. 
   
   
       8 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , where the tether is not a contiguous portion of the closure device. 
   
   
       9 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 1 , where the perforated section extends around the entire circumference of the closure device. 
   
   
       10 . The personally identifiable container of  claim 9 , wherein the container cap has a semi-malleable surface embedded within its top surface for allowing a user to scratch identifying marks therein 
   
   
       11 . A tamper-evident bottle cap comprising
 a cap portion, a ring portion, perforations, and a tether, where the perforations separate the cap portion from the ring portion, where the tether connects the ring portion to the cap portion.   
   
   
       12 . The bottle cap of  claim 11 , wherein the bottle cap has a circumference, where the perforations surround a majority of the circumference of the bottle cap, and where the perforations surround less than the entire circumference of the bottle cap. 
   
   
       13 . The bottle cap of  claim 12 , where the area between the cap portion and the ring portion without perforations is the tether. 
   
   
       14 . The bottle cap of  claim 12 , wherein the bottle cap has a circumference, where the perforations surround all but ⅛ of an inch of the circumference of the bottle cap. 
   
   
       15 . The bottle cap of  claim 11 , wherein the bottle cap has a circumference, where the perforations surround the entire circumference of the bottle cap. 
   
   
       16 . The bottle cap of  claim 11 , where the tether is a separate filament extending outward from the side of the bottle cap. 
   
   
       17 . The bottle cap of  claim 11 , wherein the cap portion comprises inner threads. 
   
   
       18 . The bottle cap of  claim 11 , where the bottle cap consists of a single material. 
   
   
       19 . The bottle cap of  claim 18 , where the single material is high density polyethylene. 
   
   
       20 . The bottle cap of  claim 11 , further comprising a means of personal identification. 
   
   
       21 . The bottle cap of  claim 20 , wherein the means of personal identification is a semi-malleable surface. 
   
   
       22 . A method of using a tamper-evident bottle cap, where the tamper-evident bottle cap comprises a cap portion, a ring portion, perforations, and a tether, where the tamper evident bottle cap is secured to a bottle, comprising the steps of
 unscrewing the cap portion and stretching the tether to remove the cap portion from the bottle, whereby the perforations are broken and the cap portion is separated from the ring portion, where the tether connects the cap portion to the ring portion, and   consuming a substance from the bottle.   
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising the step of
 screwing the cap portion back on to the bottle.