Wine Bottle Recycling

Filed in archive Wineries on March 12, 2007

While I'm still not ready to start sipping wine from one of those card board cartons that seem to be the wave of the future, it has occurred to me before that there seems to be a lot of waste when it comes to empty wine bottles. One of our favorite eateries has one cool solution. They decorate with them, using them to line every nook and cranny of the place, even using some for vases. However, here's another solution from WRAP launches new wine bottle project:

A new WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) initiative, which seeks to boost the UK's glass recycling market and reduce the amount of glass waste stemming from the wine industry, has been launched.

The new project will see WRAP working with British Glass to encourage more wine importers, brand owners and retailers to bulk import wine and bottle it in lighter glass bottles manufactured in the UK.

The UK is the largest importer of wine in the world, with over one billion litres imported each year from Europe and the New World, around 80% of which arrives already bottled. WRAP research suggests that the current average weight of a 75cl wine bottle is 500g, although bottles of around 300g are in circulation. By encouraging the lightweighting of wine bottles, WRAP is aiming to reduce the amount of UK glass waste by 20,000 tonnes.

The project will build upon the success of WRAP's Container Lite project, which supported Coors Brewers Ltd to successfully lightweight its 330ml Grolsch bottle by 13%, saving 4,500 tonnes of glass waste per year.

David Workman, Director General of British Glass, says: "The UK glass industry is fully committed to this latest initiative. Lighter bottles ultimately mean less waste as well as making important savings in raw materials and energy use."