#nofilter blogIf the environment decided how wine gets packaged
12.06.2018

If the environment decided how wine gets packaged

Did you know that contrary to what is usual in foods, the packaging of wine has a bigger environmental impact than the contents?

Wine in Alko’s assortment is packaged in glass bottles of different weights, in PET bottles, wine pouches, cartons, and bag-in-boxes; and a couple of products in aluminum cans. The most relevant environmental impacts in Alko’s wine and beer assortment come - even a little bit surprisingly - from the production of the packages. The only product group where the production of the drink itself causes the biggest impact is spirits. This was studied as a joint Nordic Alcohol Monopolies’ project already in 2016-2017 and the results were published in Spring 2017.

Based on these study results we develop Alko’s purchasing practices and assortment to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging and thus for our part aim to guide industry development in the right direction. As a continuum to the previous study Alko commissioned a second study on the production of different packaging materials: their CO2e emissions and the other environmental impacts, and additionally the use of recycled material in drinks packaging and the environmental certifications available for them. In light of the results, by far the biggest CO2e emissions are related to glass bottles. The biggest climate impact of glass comes from its production which is extremely energy-consuming. For instance, the PET bottle is a climate-friendly option to glass packaging and recycled PET would have an even better CO2e footprint.

So, also well-functioning recycling is crucial and here in Finland the returning of empties works very well thanks to the deposit system. A small deposit is embedded in the selling price if the producer has chosen to participate in the system, and when you return the empties in a reverse-vending machine you get the deposit back. Still the optimal functionality has two halves: how actively we recycle and how pure is the material being returned. For instance, Alko sold 31,9 million recyclable PET bottles in 2017 and the return rate, according to Palpa (the national drinks package recycler) was 91 per cent. Using these figures as basis for calculation some 2,8 million PET bottles sold by Alko were not recycled. These plastic bottles maybe ended up in energy waste or most regrettably were left behind in the nature. On the pureness side, in PET bottle recycling – apart from empties being empty and not too soiled – it is important that any metal closures and rings have been removed because when metal gets mixed with plastic it may easily spoil the entire batch. In that case the only destination left is energy recovery (read: waste incinerator). The plastic closure on the other hand is desirable to leave on because as material it has equal value with the bottle.

How about the other end of the loop: material being used again as raw material? There is fairly little possibility to obtain comprehensive information about the drinks packaging production. Usage of recycled material would significantly improve both the environmental and the CO2e footprint of all packaging types. Therefore, Alko’s future activities related to drinks packaging will focus on use of recycled material in addition to reducing the package weights. Increasing the use of recycled material is also an important part of the EU’s plastics strategy: the EU wants to build a new economy for plastics where reuse, repair and recycling are respected. In case of glass, recycling has problems of its own: there is very little industrial glass production left in Finland that would use recycled glass.  Most of the recycled glass being returned to packaging production is crushed and transported abroad for further processing.

We are strongly a part of a global market and we Alko employees want to change the world for the better wherever there is an opportunity for it via our own work. Even though we do not produce drinks ourselves we aim to actively influence how they become packaged and, respectively, inform our customers about why these changes matter. Traditionally, glass has been seen as the only option to package quality wine. With the development of other packaging materials, however, this holds true any longer only if the wine is intended for years of storing, or if it is a sparkling wine or champagne and the package obviously needs to endure pressure. In all these cases the amount of glass (ie. the weight of the bottle) can be significantly reduced from the traditional levels and achieve respective climate gains. The weight of the glass bottle has no effect on the quality of the product even if many would perhaps unconsciously think so.

When you are making a wine choice in a store do you pay attention to the packaging material? If there is no difference in the product quality will glass still be the only right option for you, and if yes, why?  

 

Laura Varpasuo

The writer is Sustainability Manager at Alko Inc. and thinks recycling and especially plastics recycling is neat.

 

Laura’s own tips:

  1. Look for products marked with ‘Environmentally responsible packaging’ symbol in Alko’s assortment, or very light and recyclable packages
  2. If the package doesn't match your table setting, consider serving e.g. pouch wine from a nice glass carafe
  3. Recycle all packages

The blog text was updated on 3 June 2019 with the new symbol name Environmentally responsible packaging.

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