California Wineries Finding Significant Cost, Emission Savings with rPET Wine Bottles

Traditional glass packaging represents a number of problems when it comes to the
totality of wine’s environmental impact. First, glass requires a lot of heat
and energy to produce. Next,
there’s the fact that less than a
third
of all glass in the US is recycled. Lastly, glass is heavy — and more weight
equals more shipping emissions.

Beyond this trifecta, there’s been growing sentiment to explore long-term
alternatives to glass packaging in wine’s traditional 750-ml format to find
something lighter, more recyclable and ultimately less resource-intensive to
produce.

The recent launch of a new recycled PET (rPET) bottle in this
higher-volume vessel proves to be a first step in that direction — providing
almost fully recyclable and shelf-stable bottles to the wine industry at a
fraction of the conventional weight.

The bottles came about through a multi-year partnership between packaging giant
Amcor’s Rigid Packaging division and California
wine producer Ron Rubin, who sells wine
under his namesake label and River Road Family
Vineyards and Winery. While Rubin is the most
prominent producer using the rPET bottles, selling his wine under the Blue
Bin moniker, Amcor says a “small” number of other
wineries are also piloting them. Rubin is advertising the bottles as “the first
wine bottle that’s 100% recycled and 100% recyclable;” and while that’s
technically true, Amcor senior marketing manager Jonathan
Jarman explained to Sustainable
Brands® (SB) that the bottle closure is not, and the bottle is only
recyclable in areas that support plastic recycling.

What’s more, while the concept of these larger bottles is new, the technology
isn’t. The bottles consist of 100 percent rPET with a thin layer of a material
called Plasmax — a silicon oxide coating that prevents oxygen permeation
from reaching the wine, as oxygen exposure can lead to spoilage — which Amcor
has used in wine bottles for nearly 20 years. The rPET bottle is most
recognizable in its 187-ml (half-bottle) sizing, often used in travel and
aviation settings. According to Amcor, the bottles keep wine fresh for up to 18
months.

Made closer to home

Lost under the headlines of the material recyclability is that the bottle is
made in Fairfield, California — less than an hour from Napa Valley wine
country and from Blue Bin’s Sebastopol headquarters, and just about four
hours from the state’s central coast wine region. Considering upwards of 70
percent of US glass bottling is imported from
China,
pivoting to domestically produced rPET or PET would save immensely on shipping
and environmental costs, and contribute to a more stable and resilient supply
chain.
Amcor says it produces nearly 300 million wine bottles per year, including the
187-ml PET bottles for big names such as Sutter Home and Barefoot.

Bringing bottle production closer to some of the industry’s largest producers
could lead to a big shift — but it’s going to take a shift in awareness from
consumers first. To be clear, the real potential of these PET and rPET bottles
lies within the lower third of the wine market. Amcor and Rubin are both
positioning the vessel for hotels, pools, hospitality and outdoor-adjacent
spaces where a light, shatterproof bottle with a medium-level, yet premium
beverage matches up to the desired experience of the consumer. It’s a safe bet
that a $300 bottle of Bordeaux is probably not going to be bottled in anything
other than glass; but for the everyday wine drinker, the idea of a PET bottle
isn’t so far-fetched.

Jarman says that the potential of PET and rPET comes down to the swiftness in
which the average consumer finishes a bottle of wine. Amcor research finds that
as much as 95 percent of a bottle of wine is consumed within the first 48 hours
after purchasing, meaning that the vessel it’s sold in is almost secondary to
the experience.

Adapting to the change

But a broad shift to rPET wouldn’t only require a complete rethinking of the
bottling process — it would take new technology, as well.

“We built a mobile bottling unit to bottle Blue Bin; and as the volume grows, we
will grow with that,” Rubin tells SB.

Jarman adds that while the bottles are available to anyone, it’s going to take a
few early adopters to prove the case before larger producers follow suit.

“There has to be some proof demonstrating that it’s worthwhile to make the
change,” he says.

While he didn’t get into the details, Jarman noted that wine producers can save
money in the long run by converting to rPET and PET bottling, just on shipping
and storage costs alone with the lighter overall weight. He says Amcor also did
a study with bartenders and found that they may also prefer the lighter bottles
— the average, 750-ml PET wine bottle weighs 85 percent less than the same-sized
glass bottle, for a total saving of eight pounds per case. It’s a similar
benefit to what Champagne Telmont is experiencing with its “world’s
lightest Champagne
bottle,”
launched last year — a lightweighted glass bottle yielding significant shipping
and carbon savings, despite only being 35 grams lighter than the commercial
standard.

Early adoption of rPET bottles made sense for a producer like Rubin — whose
operation is one of only 33 certified B
Corp
wineries in the world and one of five in California. While Rubin does not use
organic grapes and “has no interest” in biodynamic practices, his winery does
meet other sustainability criteria — earning the Certified Sustainable seal
from the California Sustainable Winegrowing
Alliance.

“If you look at the total cost of ownership, (wine producers) are saving money
by converting to PET in the long run,” Jarman says. “We’re so much lighter than
the glass — it’s just that much cheaper to ship, and lends itself to e-commerce
in an exciting way.”

Four 2022 vintage varietals of Blue Bin wine in the rPET bottles are now available for $15
each in three states: California, Texas and Florida.