Sainsbury’s gives thumbs up to plastic wine bottles
Not long after we heard about wine coming in either boxes or bags, UK grocery chain Sainsbury’s says it’s going to start selling wine in plastic bottles, as part of a trial.
UK consumers buy around one billion bottles of wine every year, using around half-a-million tonnes of glass. Reducing the weight of wine packaging to 54g (2oz) by using plastic bottles could reduce carbon emissions by around 90,000 tonnes, according to the government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), which is involved in the trial.
“That’s equivalent to taking 28,000 cars off the road for a year,” said a Wrap spokeswoman.
Wrap will assess how successfully the plastic bottles can be recycled and will measure the environmental impact of the scheme.
It doesn’t appear to affect the price though: a 75cl plastic bottle of sauvignon blanc will cost £4.99. One wonders what the French will make of all this…
