Should Glass Wine Bottles Go Away?

Almost half of a winery's greenhouse gas emissions are from the production and transport of glass bottles. It could be a big win if there's a reasonable alternative.

Plastic liquor
bottle

An empty glass wine bottle weighs about a pound. It varies by several ounces, as you've probably handled some heavy glass bottles that are supposed to give the illusion of high quality. A sparkling wine bottle is almost two pounds, but there's a need for a heavier bottle as the contents are under pressure.

If you are worried about non-glass containers and aging, most wine is consumed within a couple of days of purchase, and the vast majority within a year. 

Some of the most likely alternatives: 

Thinner Glass

This could save close to a half-pound per bottle. Sparkling wine bottle could be reduced, too, you just have to be careful that you don't get exploding bottles. A few places in Champagne are in the process of switching to thinner glass. There are issues with it looking or feeling cheap and with possible easier breakage. This alternative will be the least expensive and be easily received by consumers.

Closed-Loop Recycling

Wine bottles could be reused. They would have to go to a plant for cleaning and sterilizing, then sold back to wineries. This has been done with beer bottles in some states and countries. The cost of setting this up is what will hold this option back. When I was in Germany, the locals would set out their empty beer bottles in a bottle carrier. One a week the beer man (like the milk man of days gone by) would stop by and exchange the empties for fresh, new, full bottles. We won't do that here, but there will have to be drop-off points at stores selling wine to collect empty bottles.

Plastic

 It's cheap, recyclable, and shatterproof. You can make them any size or shape you want, including flat-sided. Sounds like a dream, but, yeah, plastic. Ewww. Customer perception is everything here. Liquor in plastic bottles is trying to make the change; some consumers are worried about how long they'll keep. The consensus seems to be you can up to two years before the plastic starts to degrade, creating an off-taste and probably creating chemicals you don't want to consume in large quantities. This means plastic won't be the answer for people that age wines. Plastic wine bottles would need an expiration date.

Aluminum Cans 

 Recyclable, very light, and they don't break, all just like plastic. Cans are also quick to chill for your whites and rosés. Where a plastic bottle can be shaped and decorated to look like a "real" wine bottle, cans are always going to look and feel like cans. The craft beer industry made a fairly easy transition from bottles to cans because there already were cans in the marketplace for macro-beers. Can it be done with premium wine?

 

The Perception 

The problem with these alternatives is those in the wine biz believe it could make the wine look cheap. If you don't think so, just look at the attempt to move from corks, and all of their flaws, to a screw cap. The perception of it being a cheap wine is precisely why we still use so many corks. 

Much of the fault lies with the wine industry, as they first put only cheap wine under screw caps, and are now putting only cheap wine in alternate containers.