Sainsburys To Sell Wine In Plastic Bottles

Sainsbury’s is to dump its production of glass wine bottles in favour of recyclable plastic bottles as part of a trial, the supermarket chain announced today.
UK consumers purchase roughly one billion bottles of wine each year, using around half-a-million tonnes of glass.
The government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), which is involved in the trial, claims the lightweight and recyclable bottles will reduce carbon emissions around 90,000 tonnes by cutting the weight of wine packaging to 54g (2oz), making them more environmentally friendly `.
Wrap will measure the environmental impact of the scheme, assesing how successfully the bottles can be recycled. It said that “it is not in a position to compare” the energy use involved in recycling a glass bottle versus a plastic bottle until its environmental analysis was published next month.
The wine will be bottled in the UK, allowing nearly twice the amount of wine to be transported in each container – also reducing carbon emissions.
While it has been possible to buy wine in plastic containers before, Sainsbury says this is the first time the bottles have been made to look identical to traditional glass bottles .
Barry Dick, product technologist for beers, wines and spirits at the supermarket commented; “The new wine bottle looks exactly the same as a glass bottle, holds the same amount of liquid and doesn’t compromise the quality of the wine in any way.”
The recyclable 75cl plastic wine bottles included in the intitial trial early next month will be: a £4.99 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a £3.99 Australian Shiraz, alongside two Wolf Blass wines .
The eco friendly move by Sainsbury’s follows last month’s campaign by Waitrose to start selling milk in plastic pouches after concerns were raised over the threat posed to the environment by plastic milk cartons .

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