First, let’s look at the traditional wine format. Like you, we love wine bottles. They can be beautiful, provoking and informative, often an extension of the glorious liquid within. The ritual of opening a bottle of wine is centuries-old, romantic and absolutely rewarding. But what’s also true is that wine bottles are expensive, heavy, breakable and environmentally hazardous. Glass bottles contribute up to one half of most winery’s carbon footprint. And though bottles can be recycled, too often they are not. Reports indicate that as little as one-third of wine bottles are recycled in the United States. And those numbers dip even lower in many parts of the wine-consuming world. And even when glass is recycled, it requires an immense amount of energy to do so.

Glass production also requires an extraordinary amount energy and silica, an extremely fine sand that’s been broken down by water and wind over millions of years. The extraction of silica is extremely harmful to local communities and ecosystems, so much so that many environmentalists consider this impact a global crisis.

Bottled wine is heavy. And many consumers still equate a bottle of wine’s weight with its quality. Because of this, many wineries continue to use unnecessarily thick, heavy glass when bottling wine for export. Shipping wine in bottle has a significant impact on a wine’s price. Global freight rates have risen drastically in recent years, compounding the pricing pressure in today’s inflationary market. Not only does shipping wine in bottle affect our pocketbooks, it also has a tremendous effect on our environment. Two-thirds of a wine’s carbon footprint comes from packaging and transportation. Alternative packaging, whether it be BiB, aluminum cans or Tetra Paks, is far lighter and able to maximize space during transport, greatly reducing the wine’s impact on the environment.