GlassRite Wine, a WRAP funded project delivered by British Glass supported the supply chain for the wine industry in rightweighting the bottles they used and maximising the opportunity to bulk import wine and fill in the UK.

The project successfully delivered new lightweight wine bottles into the UK and substantially increased bulk importation and UK filling. This reduced the amount of glass in the UK waste stream and increased the demand for recovered glass back into new wine bottles.

The project has contributed CO2 saving of over 28,300 tonnes/annum by increasing bulk importation of wine for UK filling by 79 million glass bottles which has in turn increased the use of UK recycled glass due to increased UK wine bottle manufacture by 23,930 tonnes/annum and reduced glass packaging for wine by 11,397 tonnes/annum due to lightweighting. The Drive for Packaging Reduction There is considerable drive in the UK to reduce the amount of packaging consumed across all sectors. This requirement is embodied in the EU Packaging Waste Directive, and at a more local level, the Government Waste Strategy, the activities of WRAP and its Courtauld Commitment. Drivers include reduced raw material consumption, effective use of recycled materials, a reduction in waste to landfill and associated carbon emission savings.

Beyond the environmental arguments, there is a strong business case for packaging reduction due to the supply chain in terms of cost savings, process efficiencies, and marketing possibilities it offers. This can be achieved either through engineering out unnecessary elements of packaging, or as is the case here, increasing bulk importation of wine for UK filling and using lightweight bottles.