Paper Boy Wine launched the first bottle of eco-responsible wine, but it doesn't always work. A look back at this fallen innovation…
What if the future of wine did not lie only in the ecological production of grapes, but also on packaging limiting its borrowing ? This is what Paper Boy Wine wanted to achieve… but it doesn't always work. Feedback on the innovation of the cardboard bottle.
Wine and ecology : a global trend that is confirmed
That's a fact, more and more consumers around the world are interested in organic wines and winegrowers have understood this well. This is reflected in the explosion in the number of organic farms, but also integrated, reasoned or sustainable.
But very often, we forget that packaging has its consequences on the environment. It is from this observation that the British company Greenbottle launched in 2012 in the United States the first “fully recyclable” bottle in collaboration with Truett-Hurst. In less than three years, the company has stopped this project. Let's go back to this adventure.
The innovative concept of a cardboard wine bottle
The Paper Boy bottle consists of a plastic bag with an aluminum cap, enclosed in a cardboard "shell". According to the company, this is "the first bottle of wine 100 % recyclable and 80 % lighter than a glass bottle ". The paper which composes it is paper itself recycled to 80 % and the ink is biodegradable. A lighter bottle also means a lower carbon footprint during transport..
The result : the carbon footprint of the Paper Boy bottle is 67 % weaker than glass.
A cardboard bottle has significant advantages for the consumer. Have you ever gone for a walk and carried a bottle of wine in your backpack for a country picnic? ? The bottle is almost as heavy empty as it is full, whereas a cardboard bottle weighs almost nothing when emptied. The bottle can also be sold at festivals, where a glass bottle will be prohibited for safety reasons.
The problem with glass wine bottles
Despite all the benefits of a glass bottle for storing and transporting wine, it also has its dark side that should not be overlooked.
According to Roger Boulton, professor in the Department of Viticulture and Oenology, of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis, more than half of the carbon footprint of wine production is only due to the production of the bottle.
In 2008, Fetzer Vineyards (California) experimented with a lighter glass bottle. The company was able to reduce its carbon footprint by 14 %, which corresponds to plant 70’000 trees and let them grow for 10 years !
A solution that did not make a big splash
While this bottle seems to promise all the benefits to become a real trend, the Chardonnay from Mendocino in California and the red wine blend from Paso Robles failed to convince.
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| Source : winefolly.com |
Many voices have been raised against the environmental image of this bottle :
- Using plastic is never environmentally friendly, because it is made from petroleum, a resource known to be non-renewable and polluting. Glass is recyclable and the carbon footprint of a bottle decreases with each recycling.
- Between throwing a glass bottle in the appropriate bin and opening a Paper Boy bottle, separate the components to then distribute them in the sorting bin and the non-recyclable household waste bin, What do you prefer ? On the long term, many will give up.
- For a bottle sold at 15 $, reviews have been rather bitter about the quality and storage time of the wine.
The fall of Paper Boy Wine
In February 2015, as Truett-Hurst experiences direct-to-consumer sales growth, the company reports losses in the second quarter of 474.000 $, partly attributable to 800.000 $ of stock losses that had oxidized at their distributor. The brand's website was closed, leaving the only message :
"To our fans…
Thank you for your support of Paper Boy wines and our efforts to save the planet ! Unfortunately, we had to suspend our efforts due to the inability of the bottle manufacturer to meet our quality control standards in the production of our paper bottle. We hope that these problems can be solved so that we will resume production soon.. Be sure that we will keep you informed of the release of the next edition ! "
Perhaps we will soon see a new concept of ecological bottle to live up to the promises of Paper Boy !
Thanks to Eva S. and Mathilde N. for help with this article!
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