We love our bottles of wine, and we love the sound of the cork coming out of the bottle. Sadly, bottles of wine are bad for the environment. Today, we’re going to explore flat wine bottles as a better option for environmental goodness.
Want to be hip? Buy flat wine bottles.
Why Are Traditional Wine Bottles Problematic?
Pix.wine says it brilliantly: “The glass bottle is wine’s biggest contribution to climate change, perhaps accounting for as much as one-half of a winery’s carbon footprint. Glass, of course, can be recycled, but the issue isn’t as simple as it sounds. Raw glass is made from sand, which is being extracted faster than it can be replaced. It’s also heavier than aluminum and plastic and requires more energy to transport, and its recycling rate is poor in most of the world; as little as one-third in the U.S. is recycled.”
Decanter goes on to say that “The more glass bottles weigh, the more they cost to produce and transport, and the higher their CO2 emissions.”
NowThisNews talks about London-based Garçon Wines who appears to be one of the biggest promoters of flat wine bottles. (I’ve also heard of efforts in Australia and Chile, and I’m sure there’s more.) One of their goals was to have a bottle format that could enable wine to be shipped by mail. Apparently, their flat bottles fit into UK mailboxes. But beyond this practical desire, they saw the environmental benefits: Their bottles are 87% lighter than a glass bottle, which means every bottle saves 500g of CO2 across their supply chain. The flat shape also means they take up 40% of the space traditional bottles do, which cuts down on transportation costs and emissions.
Garçon has flattened the bottle and made it longer to hold the same amount of wine as a regular bottle.
The flatness of the bottles allows you to squeeze more wine into shipping containers, which further cuts down on CO2 emissions.
The flat-pack bottles are made from 100% recycled and recyclable PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic, which in the United States is recycled at the same rate as traditional wine bottles.
Wonderful Photos
I came across a bunch of great photos. Besides the one at the top, here are my favorites.
Aren’t those flat wine bottles fun?
She’s clearly enjoying her flat bottle
So the big question for you is whether you’re willing to forego the traditional bottle for the environmental benefits you get from a flat wine bottle. I know I am. I might record corks popping out of bottles so that I can experience that occasionally. But I’m eager to see us move in this direction. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Cheers!
Sounds great, but where can we get them in the US?