by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Supermarkets are in talks with a small British business over using what it claims is the world's first paper wine bottle.
Paper wine bottle inventor Martin Myerscough with the product
This was revealed in early November 2011 by the company behind the first paper milk bottle. GreenBottle, has developed a prototype paper bottle for wine and is currently in talks with supermarkets and wine producers.
The company, based in Woodbridge in Suffolk, hopes to make the paper bottle available to the public as early as 2012.
According to GreenBottle replacing glass with compostable paper will reduce the drink's carbon footprint by 10% and cut waste.
The company recently celebrated a landmark by selling a 100,000 paper milk bottles, which are currently on trial in Asda stores in the south west.
Inventor Martin Myerscough, who is behind the new product, said: "The best thing about GreenBottle is that consumers just 'get it'. "We've found that if you offer them the choice of a paper bottle or a plastic one they'll choose paper every time.
"Choosing milk in GreenBottles enables consumers to 'do their bit' for the environment every day - and our sales show that ever-greater numbers of consumers are doing this.
"We're hopeful that the success we've had with GreenBottle in milk can be repeated with wine. It would mean an end to those morning-after trips to the bottle bank.
"All you would need to do is rip out the plastic lining and put the paper outer-casing in the bin or on the compost heap.
"We've had a lot of interest from supermarkets and wine producers so we could see the wine GreenBottle on shelves as early as next year."
We certainly have heard a little about the paper milk bottle but, so far, I must say that I have not seen one and as to the compostable claim I am rather not convinced, unless it is really just as kind of cardboard body.
There is, after all, compostable and then there is compostable. One can be done in your composter or compost heap in your garden and the other kin d cannot and can only really be done via commercial composting schemes run by councils and businesses, using heat.
We have learned from what the inventor has said that the bottle contains a plastic liner that the consumer has to rip out before the bottle can be composted. In other words, the paper bottle is nothing more than a new version of the wine carton that has a plastic bladder inside it.
The question is now, in my mind at least, as to what type of plastic this plastic liner is made of – enter the BPA question and other leachable chemicals especially considering the fact that wine goes into there – and whether and how it can be recycled.
Is this just another case of greenwash and something that suits the supermarkets because they can reduce their “carbon footprint” as to transportation and also transportation costs as the paper bottle, obviously, is lighter, or is it actually going to be something that really does something for the environment.
I still suggest we get back to the glass bottle and reuse rather than recycle...
© 2011
