Wine industry collaboration calls for international involvement

Led by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), phase one worked with retailers, brand owners, wine agents, fillers and UK glass manufacturers to develop new initiatives for increased bulk importation of wine and bottle lightweighting. This pioneering work resulted in an additional 80 million glass bottles of wine being filled in the UK and 11,000 tonnes of glass being diverted from the UK’s waste stream per year.  This glass saving equates to 28,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, or taking almost 2,500 cars off the road.

WRAP is now launching phase two of GlassRite Wine and is currently inviting partners from the worldwide wine retail supply chain to take part in the project – with a focus on the Australian, USA and European wine sectors. The aim is to continue to encourage the bulk importation of wine into the UK by a further 85 million bottles of wine per year and reduce the total glass wine bottle weight by 30,000 tonnes.

International environmental consultancy, WSP Environmental, will lead the next stage of this project, which will also:

• Forecast and quantify the potential demand for bulk importation in the UK, and determine UK manufacturing and filler capacity to handle the increase in volumes;
• Encourage the increased use of recycled content in UK manufactured glass bottles;
• Trial and produce a 300g wine bottle that the wine industry will use; and
• Investigate and encourage the lightweighting of champagne and sparkling wine bottles.

Importantly the project will also work within the countries of origin to better understand the social and economic impact that increasing bulk importation to the UK may have on their communities.

Nicola Jenkin, Beverages Category Manager at WRAP, says: “This second phase offers the wine supply chain a significant opportunity to make raw material and cost savings – plus answer the call of consumer pressure to reduce packaging. We already have strong relationships with, and have worked with, major UK organisations including Tesco, The Co-operative, Constellation Europe, Kingsland Wine & Spirits and Quinn Glass and are keen to hear from others in the international wine industry who would like to get involved.”

The project’s Steering Group will be chaired by Sally Easton MW who says: "The wine industry has been enormously proactive over the past few years exploring ways to reduce the environmental impact of doing business in a global market place, and wines with an environmental and ethical message are performing increasingly well, driven by consumer demand. However, there is still more that can be done by the glass container industries to convince consumers they are on top of this issue, and WRAP’s GlassRite Wine initiative offers businesses across the supply chain the opportunity to be part of this compelling journey.”

All those involved in supplying wine to the UK are invited to participate.  If you are interested, or would like to find out more, please contact Mark Richmond at WSP Environmental on 0113 395 6636 or email Mark.Richmond@WSPGroup.com

Supportive Quote:

"The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) is delighted that this project has moved on to a second phase. There is still plenty of work to be done with colleagues in the supply chain for wine to ensure that companies benefit fully from the excellent research done during the first phase. There are obvious synergies between optimising business efficiency and minimizing damage to the environment, and the WSTA will be very happy to work with WSP Environmental and WRAP to ensure that the message gets out there." 

John Corbet-Milward, Head of Technical and International Affairs at the WSTA