Toasting Recyclable Glass
Karen Titulaer, sustainability champion at New Zealand winery Villa Maria Estate, explains how Villa Maria is using glass to make a difference – and so can you.
Raising a glass to Villa Maria for using recycled glass for its wine bottles, and why.
Glass is like that favourite black blazer in your wardrobe you’ve had for years. It can shape-shift with whatever you wear, can be reused over and over again and never fails to deliver. Glass can be broken down and reused over and over again to make containers and bottles well into the future. It’s easy to think of recycling glass as being a great thing to do to avoid sending it off to landfill, but recycling glass has so much more potential to help the environment and climate change than just that. Using recycled glass in packaging actually uses a lot less energy than working with virgin (brand-new) glass, and when you’re using less energy, you’re producing less carbon emissions. Win, win.
Local winery Villa Maria – which was rated in the top 20 of the most admired wine brands in the world – recognises the opportunity to provide wine lovers with a top-quality product, while also reducing its impact on the environment.
Villa Maria is a member of New Zealand’s Glass Packaging Forum (GPF) a voluntary product stewardship scheme. Currently in New Zealand, 75 per cent of glass is being recycled, and the GPF’s goal is to have 82 per cent recycled by 2024.
Sustainability is an inherent part of the Villa Maria way, and the award-winning winery continues to work towards goals such as zero waste to landfill, reducing carbon emissions and transitioning more vineyards to produce organic wines. All Villa Maria wines are bottled in New Zealand–made bottles with an average of 69 per cent recycled glass, with a focus on increasing this over time. The majority of the bottles are ‘lightweight’, which means they use less emissions to make and to transport. This is especially important as Villa Maria is popular all over the world – a bottle of Villa Maria sauvignon blanc is sold in the UK every three seconds. All the other elements of its packaging for every single bottle of Villa Maria wine, including caps, labels and boxes, is sourced within 22km of its Auckland estate to help reduce carbon emissions and to promote local economic development and a thriving community.
Although it’s important for businesses such as Villa Maria to be leading the charge when it comes to providing people with responsible products and using sustainable packaging and processes, it’s also important for us all to help make change, too.
Seeking out products and businesses that use New Zealand glass in their packaging is key to making a bigger impact with your purchases, and the best way to find out which brands are using New Zealand glass is to ask them directly. People power can make all the difference.