Wine: going beyond the bottle

One of the areas of business sustainability that Greenbang thinks is likely to see much attention over the coming years is simple packaging. Or often, not so simple packaging–where fruit and veg, for example, is concealed within two or more layers of plastic, for no apparent purpose.

Change is already under way. In some markets, such as grocery retailing, there is already a race for the top–by removing packaging entirely. Take the newly launched (in London) Whole Foods Market, which piles up stacks of yummy goods without a single carton or box or wrapper to spoil the view.

And the next area to change may well be wine, as producers shift away from bottles and start to adopt either bags or boxes as a more sustainable type of packaging than glass bottles. Aside for improved recycling prospects (wine bottles are bad news for recyclers, apparently), the pouch packaging also helps deliver a carbon footprint that is 80% smaller.

Just as we were getting used to screwtops…