AUSTRALIA – Sustainable packaging and manufacturing company, Packamama has developed 100% recycled PET plastic wine bottles for the Australian market with Accolade Wines and Taylors Wines.
Accolade Wines’ Banrock Station and Taylors’ One Small Step wines are now available for purchase in selected Liquorland and First Choice Liquor Market stores nationally starting this month.
The eco-flat wine bottles are made entirely from Australian-sourced recycled PET, helping to improve the wine industry’s carbon footprint by targeting an environmental hotspot: the conventional glass bottle.
The new bottles mimic the high-shouldered shape of traditional ‘Bordeaux’ wine bottles and have a slimmer profile meaning twice the usual number of bottles can be packed into a standard-sized wine case, reducing storage space and transportation costs.
Using rPET also saves weight, and with the bottles being 83% lighter, emissions in transport are reduced as well as the energy in production and recycling to further tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
The freight-friendly bottle has the potential to significantly reduce the road transport burden and emissions for wine in Australia.
Were both Accolade Wines and Taylors Wines to switch entirely to eco-bottles, it would cut an impressive 250,000 km of road freight a year or the equivalent of a semi-trailer traveling from Melbourne to Broome 50 times.
While the shape of the eco-bottle is a departure from the traditional round wine bottle, Packamama Founder and Chief Executive Navarro is confident the time is right for Australian winemakers to respectfully challenge a couple of centuries of tradition.
“Australia is globally recognized as a leader in wine packaging thanks to break-through innovations, including bag-in-box casks and screw-top caps for wines, and we are highly motivated to launch our climate-friendly bottle at Coles with Accolade Wines and Taylors Wines,” he says.
“Coles’ ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable retailer is powerfully aligned with our ambition to deliver the world’s most scalable, sustainable bottle.”
The bottle has been made with the knowledge in mind that the majority of the Australian population is aware of the magnitude and urgency of the climate crisis, including the necessity for low carbon footprint packaging choices, highlights Navarro.
The Australian Packaging Covenant Organization has ambitious targets for packaging. By 2025, packaging should be 100% reusable, compostable or recyclable; 70% of plastic packaging should be recyclable or compostable, and packaging should contain 30% recycled content.
“Our bottles are ahead of this curve, made from 100% rPET and fully recyclable after use. These targets demonstrate a trend echoed by much of the world for a transition to a circular economy,” concludes Navarro.
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