Glass dismissed: wine goes green with paper bottle drive

theguardian.com:

The paper wine bottle is one of the biggest ideas since the screw top but as pecorino in a brown paper eco-bottle arrives at Ocado, there’s one thing to remember, try not to get it wet.

The £11 white, from the sustainable wine brand When in Rome, goes on sale this week, and is the first wine in a paper bottle to be sold in a mainstream UK supermarket. Even if the bottle does become damp, all is not lost, says Rob Malin, the company’s founder, because the wine is safe in a recyclable plastic pouch inside.

While glass bottles have been part of the wine-drinking tradition for centuries, making the material requires huge amounts of energy at a time when companies are looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of their products. Recycling rates for glass are also poor.

“Great wine doesn’t have to come in glass bottles,” Malin says, explaining the leap of faith he is asking wine drinkers to take. “Whether you’re drinking from a glass bottle or a paper bottle, the quality of the wine is not impacted.” However, he cautions, don’t put the paper bottle in an ice bucket. “It will go soggy. You need to use a dry chiller.”

The bottle, made by the sustainable packaging firm Frugalpac, is 94% recycled paper and has a carbon footprint that is about a sixth of a single-use glass bottle. At the moment it costs about the same as a glass one but the maths are moving in its favour because of soaring glass prices as well as shortages linked to higher energy costs and the war in Ukraine, where some factories have closed.

“The production of glass involves huge amounts of energy, so the cost of glass bottles is going sky-high,” said Malcolm Waugh, Frugalpac’s chief executive. “In some instances it is two to three times the price but it depends