It’s no secret that the wine industry hasn’t been a leader in green living, however that could be set to change with the introduction of paper bottles. Although it’s barely begun, how could the project grow to forever change this global sector?
At the Ideal Wine Company we sell luxury bottles of the finest brands on offer in the world, and we understand our consumers. Increasingly people with enough money to splash out on a luxury bottle care about what human society is doing to the planet, and the truth is that the wine industry a whole hasn’t truly acknowledged this yet.
The Carbon Footprint of a Glass Bottle
You might argue at this point that this isn’t the case; glass is recyclable. That certainly is true, but just because glass is recyclable, it doesn’t mean that bottles of wine are as environmentally friendly as you first might think.
Did you know that 17.5 billion bottles of wine are consumed globally per year? This means that the wine industry uses over 8.75 billion tonnes of glass; this is actually more waste and packaging than any other sector.
Now we have to consider the fact that the average bottle of wine, according to wrap.org.uk, weighs 36 pounds and they all have to be transported up and down the country, and across the seas to foreign lands. That means we are using an enormous amount of petrol to fuel the international wine industry and it’s no exactly reducing our CO2 emissions.
The Introduction of the Paper Bottle
This could be set to be a thing of the past with the introduction of the paper wine bottle. It’s essentially recycled cardboard carefully crafted into the shape of a wine bottle, along with a plastic liner to hold the wine in.
This marvellous invention has hit select grocery stores across the pond, having been introduced by wine company Truett-Hurst, and first wines include a delightful Paso Robles Red and a light Mendocino Chardonnay. This means that the paper bottle isn’t set to hit UK shops anytime soon, but when they do, it could drastically cut down our C02 emissions.
This is because with the wine, the paper bottle only weighs 23.6 pounds. When you consider the amount of wine we transport, you realise what an effect this is having on carbon fuel emissions. It’s a weight loss of 34%, which means 7 tonnes less per truckload.
The paper wine bottle is barely a reality at the moment, but at the Ideal Wine Company we welcome innovation, and this idea could be exactly the type of innovation that carries the industry into the heart of the 21st Century!
Ideal Wine Company 