Old Ways, New Again
We collect wine bottle supply through partnerships with organizations that process the recycled bottles for the secondary markets, wineries, special events, restaurants, grocery stores, and hotels. (oh .. added bonus we also get the corks recycled).
Wineries place wine bottle orders in advance. They let us know the types of bottles required, the quantities needed and an expected delivery date. We take care of the rest.
When it is time to prepare an order, the bottles are checked for bloom and the labels are removed. They then go through several wash cycles of high pressure washing at high temperatures similar to the procedures used for sterilizing medical equipment. (soap, sanitizer and hot water rinse).
The prepared bottles are now label free, cleaned, hygienic and ready for delivery.
Every bottle saved and reused means one less virgin bottle made. A reused bottle creates 40% less CO2 emissions than a new one. Each reused bottle saves 1.28Kg of CO2 emissions from being produced. That is the equivalent of driving a car 5 KM.
The Last Mile – Sustainability from Vineyard to Bottle
Why Reuse? Making a glass wine bottle is extremely energy intense. It is also 100% reusable. To compare, an average beer bottle is used up to 15 times. It is estimated that reusing a wine bottle would use 5% of the energy it takes to manufacture it. Every ton of virgin glass takes over a ton of raw materials to produce it.
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