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1 2 2 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | J u l y - A u g 2 015 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m END POST TYLER COLMAN l a s s b o t t l e s a r e a c r u c i a l p a r t o f wine's tradition. In Europe, a consum- e r c a n o f t e n c o n - clude a wine's region based solely on bottle silhouette: h i g h - s h o u l d e r e d o n e s f o r B o r- deaux, sloping ones for Burgundy and tall, fluted ones for the Mosel. Ye t g l a s s f a c e s c h a l l e n g e s . Bottles are heavy and they have surprisingly low recycling rates. Confronting these issues head-on will ensure that glass bottles will continue to be the packaging of choice for wine. Fortunately, the Great Reces- sion did a lot to make bottles lighter. In the early 2000s, some glass bottles weighed so much they could practically be used as dumbbells. But with the econom- ic downturn, producers sought to lighten the weight of their bot- tles, which made them cheaper to buy and transport. Also, a few years ago, the Liquor Con- trol Board of Ontario told big bottles to keep out of the prov- ince, setting a 420g maximum for a 750 mL bottle selling for under CA$15. On the recycling side, the numbers are bad and the story is getting worse. G l a s s i s i n f i - n i t e l y r e c y c l a - b l e a n d n e w b o t t l e s m a d e f r o m r e c y c l e d m a t e r i a l s u s e less energy than t h o s e p r o d u c e d from raw materials (not to mention being a c l o s e d l o o p , n o t requiring the dig- g i n g o f n e w r a w materials from the ground.) Yet according to the Environmental Protection Agency, glass packag- ing – bottles and jars – is recycled at only a 34% rate. To put that another way, two out of every three bottles ends up in a landfill rather than being recycled. And the trend is breaking down. Municipalities across the coun- try have introduced single-stream recycling where residents dispose of all recyclables (paper, alumi- num, plastic and glass) in one bin. While this has led to higher recy- cling rates overall, glass proces- sors have had to contend with much more debris, a shift in some cases from 98% glass back in the days before single stream, to as much as 50% "garbage" now in the mix. Thus, it is more expensive for them to process. According to The Wall Street Journal, proces- sors used to pay cities for glass but now charge for it. And it cuts both ways: glass shards are reducing the cost of more desirable paper recycling. So glass has become unwanted in the eyes of many town waste m a n a g e r s , a n d f o o d a n d drink producers are shifting to plastic containers. One clear way t o b o o s t g l a s s r e c y c l i n g r a t e s is bottle depos- its or redemp- t i o n s . W h e n b o t t l e r e d e m p - t i o n p r o g r a m s w e r e i n t r o d u c e d in various states in the 1980s, recycling r a t e s s u r g e d 8 0 % . Although rates have since fallen, states with consumer deposits still have recycle rates far greater than those that do not. And the higher the rate, the higher the redemptions: It's no coincidence that Michigan, with the highest redemption value of 10 cents on beer and soda bot- tles, has more than 90% of bottles returned. In Ontario, which intro- duced deposits specifically for wine bottles in 2007 at 20 cents, was 85% in 2012. Another way is to mandate that glass have a certain percentage of recycled content. A bill introduced in the California State Assembly in April aims to do just that. AB-1447, introduced by the chair of the Envi- ronmental Safety and Toxic Mate- rials Committee, Luis Alejo, sets a minimum of 35% recycled content for all glass containers filled (not manufactured) in the state. Getting back to wine, not only does glass have tradition on its side, it also has no oxygen trans- mission, something with which plastic packaging grapples. Yet non-glass packaging for wine has been rising, with kegs, bag-in- boxes and single-serve contain- ers now on the rise. With a higher recycling rate, coupled with mak- ing bottles lighter, the glass indus- try could play the environmental card more effectively in the battle of packaging marketing. Tyler Colman, author of the wine blog Dr. Vino, teaches wine class- es at New York University and the University of Chicago, and wrote t h e b o o k " W i n e P o l i t i c s : H o w Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink." Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwmmedia.com. (Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Vineyard & Winery Management.) The Glass Can Always Be Greener