|
A Technical Guide for Wine Producers
|
|
RECENT ARTICLES | WYNBOER HOME
A CLEAN AND GREEN WINE INDUSTRY
Alternative packaging for a smaller carbon footprint
From a winery point of view, new market requirements or regulatory prescriptions are often restrictive or even frustrating. One such example is the international perspective on carbon footprint. To pro-active wineries or individuals, such requirements represent opportunities to gain a market advantage. A Californian entrepreneur, for example, is developing yacht transport for wine, in view of the fact that conventional transport of wine is one of the biggest contributors to the carbon footprint of wineries. Californian Clark Beek intends to use his 40-foot yacht to transport wines from sustainable or biodynamic production from the Napa and Sonoma wine regions to the San Francisco Waterfront. Such transport, combined with his tourism activities, provides a service to ecologically-minded wineries and consumers.
For hundreds of years glass bottles have been the container of choice for wine and they are often associated with premium wines. Consumers are increasingly aware, however, that if wine has to be transported across the world, there are concomitant emissions of greenhouse gases. Various industry bodies in several countries have set goals to reduce such emissions over a certain period, inter alia through the use of lighter glass bottles and the recycling thereof. The use of plastic containers for wine has only recently met with a measure of approval, but obviously there are questions about the cost and lifespan thereof.
Although gas emissions are mostly reduced by the transportation of lighter wine containers, less recycling of such containers usually takes place. In California, for example, the recycling percentage of glass bottles increased to 28.1% in 2007 compared to 23.5% the previous year. In view of the fact that relatively few wine bottles are recycled, disposal mass and volume come into play. Plastic bottles made from PET (poli-ethylene terephthalate) usually weigh less than glass bottles (120 compared to 550 grams), have the same shelf appearance as glass bottles and may be recycled. There is an increase in bag-in-the-box packaging of wine (BIB); the outer part, made of cardboard, can be recycled, whereas the inner foil bag cannot. The latter is extremely light, however, and contributes little to the disposal mass at waste disposal sites. Tetra Pak is an aseptic packaging container consisting of different layers of pressed cardboard with an aluminium isolation layer; both the inside and the outside are covered in plastic. Recycling thereof differs among countries and may range from 5 to 27%. The comparative mass of various types of wine packaging is indicated in Table 1.
The mass of the closures of the various containers is so little that it hardly impacts on the carbon footprint at all and only the disposal thereof is actually important. Natural corks made of cork bark are fully biodegradable and can also be used for other cork products such as floor surfaces and notice boards. Alternative bottle closures such as Supreme Corq use a PET derivative that is difficult to recycle. Stelvin metal closures are made of aluminium that can be recycled, provided such waste disposal sites are available. The company Novembal has devised a plastic screw closure that can be recycled with PET bottles.
The success of recycling, regardless of the material used to make the product, can only be managed effectively if dumpsites are available and the receipt, transport and processing of waste take place in an orderly manner. Various American states have promulgated legislation, which has dramatically increased the recycling percentage of used material.
South Africans are generally not very pro-active yet when it comes to the recycling of domestic or industrial material.
Reference
Colma, Tyler. 2009. How "Green" Is Alternative Packaging? Vineyard & Winery Management, May/June 2009: 44 - 48.
|
|
Wynboer is incorporated in WineLand, magazine of the SA wine producers.
Visit our sister sites:
|
| UP |
COPYRIGHT (C) 2000 WineLand |