14 DAY TRIAL // The packaging industry has been documented to have a fairly impressive ecological footprint. The good news is that companies are working to solve this problem, and, by the looks of it, they are doing a pretty good job.
The wine bottles pictured above are the result of a collaboration between packaging company Ecologic Brands and winery Truett-Hurst, and the reason why they don't look anything like the bottles folks are used to coming across in supermarkets and the like is because they are made from cardboard.
PSFK informs that, by opting for recycled cardboard instead of regular glass, Ecologic Brands and Truett-Hurst have managed to reduce the carbon footprint of their wine bottles by an impressive 67%.
Besides, they estimate that, should such bottles become a standard, the wine shipping industry in the United States could save some 50,793,750 gallons of diesel annually. This is because, unlike glass bottles, the ones made from cardboard are surprisingly lightweight.
More precisely, it is estimated that, when filled with wine, the average cardboard bottle weighs about 85% less than its glass counterpart. This means that it can easily be carried around, and that properly disposing of it is not a problem either.
“Campers, hikers, and fishermen can carry this lightweight package and enjoy premium wine from a 750-mL bottle almost anywhere, collapsing it when finished for return to a recycling site,” specialist Phil Hurst says.