An Alternative to the 750 ml Glass Bottle

The glass wine bottle has been around and pretty much unchanged for a couple hundred years. That's pretty amazing when you think of it. Where else do you find this longevity in a consumer product? Problem is it's heavy, it breaks easily, it lets in light and heat easily, and isn't very environmentally friendly.

There have been various attempts to gain traction with other containers, like the Tetra Pak, for instance, but none have caught on. Even attempts at different glass bottle sizes like the 500 ml didn't happen. The biggest problems with changing from the current standard have to do with wine bottling lines being designed for 750 ml glass bottles that use corks. The other is retail shelving that's already set up for the 750 ml bottle. If you don't think retail shelves is important; that why the 500 ml bottle died out.

In England, Santiago Navarro of Garcon Wines, a wine packaging company, has come up with a 4-sided, skinny plastic bottle. It's lighter, it doesn't break, it doesn't roll around. He says it's more environmentally friendly and the young folks will like it because of that. Hang on there, buddy.

100% recycled PET plastic does contain the words "100% recycled." But is PET healthier? Even BPA free just means they're using other chemicals. Many people are switching to glass and stainless steel because of worries. Yes, glass. We all see the news stories about our plastics laying on the ground and in the ocean. Of course, we already use plenty of plastic from our Starbucks cold coffee to yogurt.

There are scientists working on biodegradable plastic -- a step in the right direction. Then there are others working on biodegradable natural polymers. Natural polymers are things like wool and cellulose. So yeah, there's probably a long way to go before we see a cotton / gluten blended wine bottle.

Keep trying, we'll get there.