TricorBraun
Winemakers in B.C. have joined with TricorBraun WinePac to educate the wine buying public on recycled glass bottles. Heidi Cook, packaging consultant and sales manager for Pacific Northwest (PNW) TricorBraun WinePak knew her winery customers were familiar with eco-friendly packaging; however, wine consumers weren’t getting that information.
“The majority of B.C. wines, stay here in B.C.,” says Cook. “I approached the BC Liquor Distribution Board (BCLDB) and asked them if there was some way of letting the winery customers know what we are doing with regard to eco-friendly packaging. After some discussion, we chose to do a promotion during Earth Week. It was decided to use the necktag process, where information is hung on the bottle neck for consumers to read.”
Earth Week runs from April 16 to Earth Day on April 22. Starting April 16, the BCLDB and wine shops will have participating wines sporting necktags that tell consumers they use eco-friendly packaging. The tags say, ‘Do you know what’s in your bottle other than wine?’
The flip side says, ‘Learn how this B.C. winery is making a sustainable difference in their choice of wine packaging.’
There’s also a QR code to scan to your smart phone.
“The launch day will be the beginning of earth week; however, it is something the wineries can use all year,” says Cook. “The link to Tricorbraun’s website (tricorbraunwinepak/bc-sustainability.aspx) explains how Tricorbraun is the distributor for the Verallia eco-wine bottles and it has all the information people will need about the bottles; how they are made and how much you save in carbon footprint by using them.”
“It is important to note than everyone from small to large wineries are moving on this program,” says Cook. “The little guys may not have the cash flow of the commercial wineries; however, they are conscious of the impact that glass has on the environment. We’ve seen a big growth in that market segment.”
How it Works
In the recent past, many wine bottles came from China. Using bottles produced at Verallia’s plant in Seattle are more eco-friendly.
B.C. wineries participate by purchasing glass packaging in a local market, thereby reducing their carbon footprint during transport by 483 pounds of CO2 per ton of product. To move one ton of glass bottles from China to an Okanagan winery in Oliver creates 678 pounds of CO2. Moving one ton of glass bottles from Verallia in Seattle creates 195 pounds. Recycled wine bottles used by local wineries will eventually be placed in recycle bins and make their way back through the system to Verallia. Then they are sorted by glass colour, broken down, and melted to make more bottles and shipped back to the wineries by Tricorbraun.
Recycling these bottles is a closed loop. “Bottles are accumulated by Encorp (which runs Return-It depots) and from their they are shipped to Seattle’s eCullet facility, thus consuming less energy and precious natural resources,” notes Cook.
“With the wine bottle itself being the biggest component of the package, we commend and support these wineries in the strides they’ve made. It is important to be able to give our wine industry and their customers a sustainable choice.”
Benefits
Using recycled glass (called cullet) produces the following benefits:
• Saves energy. The glass container industry reduces energy costs by 2 to 3% for every 10% of cullet used in the manufacturing process.
• Glass is 100% recyclable. This makes recycled glass a closed-loop process and creates very little additional waste when recycled.
• Saves raw materials. Every ton of recycled glass saves over a ton of raw materials including 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash and 380 pounds of limestone.
• Fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Using 10% more recycled glass allows for a 6% decrease in nitrogen oxide and 9.5% reduction in raw materials.
• Keep glass out of landfill. Verallia uses enough cullet to save nearly 10 million cubic feet of landfill space. Laid end to end, containers made from this amount of glass would circle the Earth 11 times.
The list below contains the wineries that have reduced their carbon footprint and their bottles will be sporting the new neck tags as of Earth Day 2013.
To visit Tricorbraun's website CLICK HERE
Participating Wineries
■ 3 Mile Estate Winery
■ 8th Generation Winery
■ Arrowleaf Winery
■ Baille Grohman Winery
■ Black Widow Winery
■ Blasted Church Vineyards
■ Blue Grouse Vineyards
■ Cedar Creek Winery
■ Chase & Warren Winery
■ Church & State Winery
■ Fairview Cellars
■ Forbidden Fruit Winery
■ Garry Oaks Winery
■ Gehringer Brothers Winery
■ Gray Monk Winery
■ Heaven’s Gate Winery
■ Hester Creek Winery
■ Hillside Winery
■ Kettle Valley Winery
■ Krazy Legs Winery
■ Lake Breeze Winery
■ Little Straw Vineyards
■ Mission Hill Winery
■ Muse Winery
■ Mt. Lehman Winery
■ Platinum Bench Vineyards
■ Quails Gate Winery
■ Robin Ridge Winery
■ Stag’s Hollow Winery
■ Sunnybrae Winery
■ Terravista Vineyards
■ Tinhorn Winery
■ Thornhaven Winery
■ Topshelf Winery
■ The View Winery
■ Wellbrook Winery
■ Wild Goose Winery