You mean sand?

jajaajajajajajajajjjaaj

Corka Cola.

As someone in a cork industry, you really don't want that.

You forgot the step where they invent a logo that looks almost the same as the recyclable logo and stick it on all plastics but it doesnt mean its recyclable but instead just says what kind of plastic it is.

No, the paint on the outside.

Sounds like we found the issue, now it's just a matter of producers improving the caps

That would be far more intuitive, but it's not that - it's the painted logo on the outside.

Or just unpainted aluminium caps.

When I was a kid they were made from metal

I quite like the swing tops with a small rubber ring that makes the seal. Easily reused too. Which is better than recycling.

In a bizarre twist, glass caps have been found to contain alarming levels of microdrink.

It actually exists for some brands of wine. It's annoying to open though.

Not plastic caps, plastic paint. The printing on bottlecaps is a polymer and it gets scuffed.

The paint itself on the outside of the bottle cap. The ultra thin layer of (apparently polymer a.k.a. plastic) paint that make the cap not just metal colored.

I thought they were talking about the seal.

their caps are fully plastic, not painted metal. The non-screwtop metal caps need to be bent to release their grip on the bottle. That scrapes the paint off the metal cap.

Bottle caps are stored in big bags of some sort before being placed on bottles.

They have sharp edges and they scratch each other's paint as they shift around in the bags.

The scratching produces a fine dust of plastic/paint particles. The dust covers all sides of the bottle caps in the bags.

The caps are placed on the bottles. The dust goes into the liquid inside the bottle. People drink it.

The paint on the caps also had "tiny scratches, invisible to the naked eye, probably due to friction between the caps when there were stored," the agency said in a statement.

This could then "release particles onto the surface of the caps," it added.

Paint scratches off the outside, then sticks to the inside and makes it into the drink.

No, the microplastics were found in the content of the bottles. The cap thing is where they come from. As a reply to you explained, the microplastic from the top of a cap is scratched by another cap and ends up on the bottom of yet another cap.

Wait...we not licking bottle caps anymore?!

I think because there is a helix twist that glass would grind away the plastic every time it’s recapped. Hence why at the end of the article it is urging manufacturers to use air and alcohol to clean the cap before fitting it to the bottle. Additionally using something other than a plastic cap to reseal the bottle when being used. And especially not one with a helix requiring a twist. You can use a wine reseal which requires no twisting