Diageo to launch Johnnie Walker whisky in paper bottles
reuters.com
reuters.com
If the Whisky industry wants to cut down on waste, there's a really easy way to do it. Stop putting whisky into fancy cardboard/metal boxes (or at least offer a version of all your lines without the box).
Other spirits do just fine without the fancy box, it's just pure waste (apart from perhaps whisky bought for gifts)
Now I wonder if Inselbrauerei's all-around labelling [0] is more than just a shelf recognizability gimmick.
[0] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d2/a7/6b/d2a76bc591bd8d13697f...
Edit: “it depends”, but generally green glass seems to be a distant 3rd in performance.
Amber > cobalt > green
Ref: https://www.thecarycompany.com/about/blog/amber-glass-vs-cob...
The heavy embossed metal or cardboard used doesn't seem to me, to come from that requirement, more a marketing thing to signal a "premium" product (the more expensive the whisky, often the more elaborate the packaging)
If a consumer buys a bottle of whisky and it's oxidized, they're not going to think "that store was poor", their first reaction will be "this whisky is poor" and to be turned off the brand. Packaging isn't worth that risk to the brand.
Opaque bottles have their own complications - no type of glass will be sufficient and other materials (aluminum, etc.) have different costs/impact on flavor/affect of alcohol on the container over time. I'm sure they're putting in plenty of research and I'm curious to see how this turns out.
Cardboard is a surprising choice to me. I was at Microsoft when they first started switching from styrofoam/plastic to compostable serving ware, and while they eventually fixed the problem of spoons melting in your soup, they never did find a compostable cup that wouldn't start dissolving if you put liquor in it (you could drink it fast, but it would be dripping within half an hour and a major problem if left for more than an hour)
Lots of airline liquor bottles are plastic.
It's pretty common for smaller bottles of inexpensive whiskey, at least here in the US; I see (and buy) the likes of Jack Daniels and Jim Beam in plastic bottles all the time (e.g. for parties, since I know we'll have no trouble going through the whole bottle in a night).
Pulpex site 'about' page: "NOT Pulp wrapped around plastic"
Pulpex site 'about' page: "NOT Pulp-infused into PET"
Pilot Lite press release: "...first ever 100% PET free paper-based spirits bottle, made entirely from sustainably sourced wood."
Diageo press release: "...100% plastic free and expected to be fully recyclable. The bottle is made from sustainably sourced pulp to meet food-safe standards and will be fully recyclable in standard waste streams."
So it's not biodegradable or compostable, but it is recyclable. It doesn't use "plastic", but some component of it presumably does not degrade. So for any chemists: what wood derivative isn't technically a plastic, but is waterproof and does not decompose?
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The mystique of ultra high-end wines aging for years requires careful conditions, specific wine properties, and is still pretty hit-and miss. For everything else, there's no reason not to package it for convenience rather than tradition.
Boxes used to be used only for bad wines, and there's still plenty of bad wine in boxes, but they've gotten good at making decent reliable wines for cheap. Putting them in a box lowers costs, and it's very nice to be able to take out one glass at a time.
Edit: lol okay I'm not the only one. So is it a marketing ploy then?
(Why sell Vodka for $10 when you can sell bottled tap water with even higher margins and it's super easy to restock and give away to your frequent travelers?)
For scotch, I've never seen anything but glass and don't believe I'd buy anything but glass.
Is there an advantage to paper recycling over glass? I know I've went through the whole "recycle your own paper" project when I was a kid but nothing to the level an industrial plant would likely do. I'm assuming energy requirements may be the same? Paper seems like it might be more difficult in some cases. Way out of my area of expertise.
I don't have any official information about what prevents it from being recycled but I've heard word of mouth that transportation costs are a huge factor if you don't already have glass production in your area. Also that sorting is a big issue, as different glasses have different additives, and need to be recycled separately but sorting is hard to do safely and cost effectively.
Normal 750ml bottles sold to consumers are likely glass, but who knows about smaller bottles or products sold to other markets.
but "pure paper" is what they're claiming... maybe there's a new tech? or maybe they're doing that cheap marketing trick where you say "20% of the package is made entirely out of nothing but 100% pure paper!"
Glass if fully recyclable and reusable.
e.g. a glass bottle in a woodland setting could stay in that form for thousands of years. A paper bottle would last a few weeks at most.
You can also simply put them through a crusher/pulverize two or three times to turn them back into sand. I'm not really sure intact glass is a big environmental problem though. Animals could get stuck in intact bottles or cut themselves on sharp glass, but otherwise I believe glass is nontoxic, generally quite inert, and as far as nature is concerned indistinguishable from other naturally occurring minerals (obsidian in particular comes to mind.)
When I moved into my home in 2006, I found circa 1985 era milk cartons and juiceboxes buried in the garden. (i think they were used to start seeds) The milk carton was degrading, the juice box, not so much.
wax, etc, remains underground, a bit like coal, or oil, long term.
The issue with glass is that it requires a lot of energy to produce and recycle, and is heavy, which means more energy to transport it.
Properly recycled plastics may in fact be the most environmentally friendly option ...
What is not useful is to put a blanket 'bad' label on plastics. This is not a simple issue and it requires comprehensive studies on a case by case basis.
A single-use item can be made very cheaply, and that includes amount of material, weight, etc. which can be a very efficient use of material and energy overall on the condition (big one) that recycling/disposal is also efficient.
For example, in supermartkets single-use plastic bag were very thin (not much plastic used). They are gone and now if you need a bag they'll give you one (here in the UK) that uses much more plastic/material. It would have been much better to keep those flimsy bags in case you need one, but to charge you enough for them to encourage you to bring your own as much as possible.
There is no environmentally friendly way to recycle plastics or glass because the require way more energy to recycle than they take to produce. Only aluminum requires more energy to extract (by electrolyzing bauxite) than to recycle so about 30-50% of aluminum sold in the US is recycled. The rest is virgin aluminum that has to be extracted to meet demand - the entire world would use only recycled aluminum if it could.
I don't predict new plastics and "virgin" plastics will necessarily disappear, but certainly a change in costs of oil would predicate a reevaluation to the market's love affair with new plastics.
> And because the theoretical energy savings of glass recycling appear to be relatively slim, it could mean that actual savings depend on lots of devilish details — how far the glass is shipped, how dispersed are the neighborhoods from which glass is collected, whether people make special car trips to recycling centers, etc.
Glass recycling is only efficient when most parameters are just right to make it economical. That includes local supply and demand of the right kind of inputs/outputs to reduce transportation and collection costs, whether a truck collects the recyclables or if homeless people do it, etc.
The margin for glass recycling is razor thin compared to aluminum so the former is rarely as environmentally friendly as the latter (although I'm excited to see what newer furnace tech can do)
Common issues:
- Manufacturing glass == high heat, heat == carbon.
- Reusing glass bottles involve cleaning, and the impact of warm water and soap is significant.
- Glass bottles are heavier than plastic. So delivering a bottle of coke in a glass bottle supposedly uses more resources than a plastic bottle. (Walmart used this to assert that Sam's Club foam cups were friendlier than cardboard a few years ago)
Basically, unless you ride a bike to the ocean, collect saltwater with an unbleached paper straw, and desalinate it using a solar-powered device that weighs less than 5 pounds, you are a horrible person.
Disposal/recycling? Glass is renewable. It's sand. It's rock.
Crush it up, dump it in the ocean and make more. With solar powered furnaces and ultra-thin tolerances, I guess.
... and you'd better be burning plant-based calories buddy
I would bet they sell the mini bottles and pints in plastic - but their full size bottles have been glass in every outlet I've seen them.
whisky should be in a glass bottle
Most of the time I've seen a switch from glass to plastic or "not plastic", the real reason is to cut down on product loss due to glass breakage en route, which is pretty big.
Having been to Japan, I saw plenty of glass bottles in the liquor stores/7/11s.
What kind of savage lets their alcohol touch plastic? ;-)