Responsible sourcing

Message in a bottle

Simon Mason from our sustainability team compares the pros and cons of the alternatives to glass packaging

Message in a bottle

Glass is one of our worst culprits in terms of emissions, so we were keen to investigate alternatives. 3Keel (a leading environment consultancy who we teamed up with last year to measure our 2021 carbon footprint), carried out additional research on several wine packaging formats to see which ones could help us achieve our sustainability goals.

The clear leader is Bag-in-Box (BiB). Compared with glass, BiB offers a big carbon reduction, uses recycled content in the card, and is also likely to be recycled again. Canned wines are another excellent choice. We already stock several, and members can expect to see even more over time.

Other packaging formats under review were recycled flat PET (plastic) bottles (‘rPET’), and ‘paper’ bottles (similar to BiB but the size/ shape of a wine bottle). rPET bottles are easily recyclable, but their shape makes them difficult to fill. This is an issue we are working with our suppliers to solve, and expect to see some of our own-label Society wines packaged in this way in future.

Keep an eye out as we’ll be introducing wine in different formats very soon. Watch this space!

At a glance

The Society's Pinot Grigio 2022

Lightweight 420g glass bottle (525G*)

PROS: Ideal for long-term ageing; likely to be recycled; lower carbon footprint than standard glass bottle

CONS: Higher breakage rate; hard to source; carbon footprint still relatively high

 

The Society's Exhibition Mendoza Malbec 2020

Standard 560g glass bottle (675G)

PROS: Ideal for long-term ageing; likely to be recycled

CONS: Heavy to transport; high carbon footprint

 

Lubanzi Chenin Blanc, Swartland 2020 250ml can

Can (141G)

PROS: Convenient; infinitely recyclable; good protection against oxygen

CONS: Not available in larger sizes; limited shelf life

 

Bag in box

Bag in box (69G)

PROS: Wine stays fresh for up to six weeks; lowest carbon footprint of all formats

CONS: Unsuitable for long-term ageing; packaging elements must be recycled separately

 

rPET

rPET

PROS: Low carbon footprint; reduced shipping space; made of 100% recycled material

CONS: Flat shape is an issue for bottlers

 

'Paper' bottle

'Paper' bottle (122G)

PROS: Low carbon footprint; compatible with most bottling lines

CONS: Unsuitable for long-term ageing; packaging elements must be recycled separately

 

*carbon equivalent in brackets, in grammes per litre of wine

Unfortunately precise figures on the carbon footprint of these formats, such as from peer-reviewed Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), are not yet available. So whilst we have shared approximate carbon footprints from publicly available studies, these are only as an indication and are not accurate comparisons. Figures are not yet available for the rPET bottle.

Download the full report

Read our report into wine packaging

Our review of a range of wine-packaging formats

Sustainability team

The Wine Society

Sustainability team

Sustainability has always been important to us. For nearly 150 years, we have been working closely with the best suppliers and growers to offer great-value wines to our members – and we want to continue doing that for the next 150. This means we need to do much more. 

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