- Winemakers are striving to reduce their carbon footprints by addressing the weight of their glass bottles and exploring alternative packaging options.
- PackagingDive reports that Champagne Telmont and French glassmaker Verallia recently achieved a milestone by testing the lightest champagne bottle ever, weighing just 800 grams.
- These lighter bottles will result in approximately 4% less carbon dioxide emissions per bottle produced.
Reducing bottle weight is a challenging task for sparkling wines that typically require thicker and heavier glass due to the internal pressure. Ludovic du Plessis, the president of Champagne Telmont, emphasized the significant pressure within a champagne bottle, which is twice that of a car tire.
Why it matters: Lightweighting bottles is one way for beverage manufacturers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as less fuel is consumed during manufacturing and transportation.
Increasing the use of recycled content in bottles is another emerging trend that improves the environmental impact of wine packaging. Some wine retailers, such as Laithwaites, have introduced wine bottles made from 100% recycled glass.
The recycling rate for glass in the United States was less than one-third in 2018, according to the U.S. EPA. The Glass Packaging Institute aims to increase the recycling rate to 50% by 2030, which could potentially reduce approximately 1.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.