Quinn Glass makes light weight bottles for Tesco

The bottle manufacturer, which has a state-of-the-art reprocessing plant in Cheshire, is working with Manchester wine company Kingsland Wines & Spirits and supermarket firm Tesco. Quinn Glass is providing two different types of green bottles, with a recycled content of up to 90%, as well as a clear bottle, which has a lower recycled content.

The new bottles are due to hit the shelves later this year and are expected to use 2,500 tonnes less of glass each year, compared to standard bottles.

Design
The principle behind the move is "optimising the design" of the bottle. If its sides or its base were too thick, the glass was streamlined to make it thinner. This basic change means the glass can still be collected by local authorities and reprocessed in the usual way.

Drinks company Constellation Europe is also on board the scheme and its Stowells and Echo Falls wines are to be sold in the light-weight bottles. They are expecting to use 2,800 tonnes less of glass every year.

Constellation Europe´s packaging development manager Mike Bullock said: "The new bottles are significantly lighter than the originals, but are not radically different in shape and can be used on our filling lines without any major modifications."

Supermarket chain Morrisons is working with Corby Bottlers and PLB Wines is working with another unnamed retailer to produce light weight bottles.

The new initiative is part of the Waste and Resources Action Programme´s (WRAP) GlassRite Wine project - which aims to encourage light weight bottles and bulk imports of wine. The organisation estimates that 90 million standard wine bottles will be replaced on shelves each year, reducing the amount of glass used for wine bottles by 6,000 tonnes a year.

WRAP glass technology manager Andy Dawe said: "It is great to see the wine industry making such significant progress on optimising packaging which will have environmental, consumer and economic benefits."