Boosting bulk wine imports could slash green glass waste

A new national initiative to reduce glass waste from the wine industry by encouraging bulk imports looks set to win support on the basis of costs, but smaller importers may be reluctant to entrust filling to untried UK contract fillers.

The initiative from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) aims to address the long-running imbalance between green and clear glass in the UK. Much of the green glass surplus is from pre-bottled imported wines.

The steering group for the project includes beverage brand owner Constellation Europe and the Wine and Spirits Trade Association (WSTA).

WRAP estimates that bulk imports from the New World can cut costs by up to 40%. Mike Bullock, packaging development manager at Constellation, says his company is already moving in the direction of bulk imports purely on the basis of cost.

But he points out: "Other brand owners will want to know that they're completely in control of the quality. With a contract packer, you're introducing a third party." Even big brands with in-house filling capacity find it difficult to plan production based on bulk imports, he adds.

Only three years ago, the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of Spain's Rioja wine region over the right to bottle its own products. But WSTA head of technical and international affairs, John Corbet-Milward, does not foresee any similar EU legal challenges to bulk imports.

Another facet of the WRAP initiative is wine bottle lightweighting. WRAP claims that, while many 75cl bottles weigh 500g, a lighter 300g bottle is a perfectly viable option.

But the WSTA is more cautious. "You can lightweight to a limited extent," says Corbet-Milward. "Beyond that point, you risk smashing more bottles than you successfully fill."