Overview: A new report indicates that standardizing wine bottles would allow Ontario to establish a reusable deposit program comparable to The Beer Store’s system. Stratus Vineyards currently imports up to six different container types, including a designer recycled glass bottle from Italy, while the Environmental Defence report highlights potential savings of $780,000 annually for Ontario wineries.
The Full Story
That differs from wine bottles returned to The Beer Store for deposit, which are crushed and recycled after a single use. Karen Wirsig of the non-profit Environmental Defence noted there is a benefit to the environment obviously — less waste and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Data from three Ontario wineries, analyzed for the report by Eunomia Consulting, found that switching even 10 per cent of the 60 million or so 750-millilitre wine bottles sold by Ontario wineries every year to refillable bottles would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wineries by 69 per cent. The data — from Niagara wineries Cave Spring, Malivoire, and 13th Street Winery— also showed the program would save the industry $780,000 annually.
Ontario’s wine industry would get “cheaper packaging and a more secure supplychain,” said Wirsig, noting wineries typically source bottles from overseas. “There’s no importing problems and there’s a lot less end-of-life wasteproblems.” Ontario wineries faced major hurdles sourcing bottles when COVID-19 hit in 2020 and supply chains shut down. Stratus winemaker Dean Stoyka noted a shipping container of wine bottles typically costing around $3,000 shot up to $20,000 or more. Hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz have caused similar price surges in recent months. A refillable wine bottle program would provide “a kind of domestic supply” of bottles, said Stoyka. “That would be a lot more secure from shocks like another COVID happening.”
Production & Profile
Refillable bottles have to be made of heavier glass to withstand washing, which could mean opposition from the LCBO, said Green of Diamond Estates. The LCBO has set mandatory maximum weight limits on wine bottles to reduce waste, lower carbon emissions, and create less physical stress for workers. Currently, wine bottles returned to a beer store are sorted by colour into bins and then crushed. Green and brown glass can be reused in road work or fibreglass; clear glass can be made back into bottles. The Beer Store wouldn’t comment on “specific meetings with others in theindustry,” but spokesperson Bradley Hammond said in an email, “we’re always interested in learning about innovative approaches that help keep empty alcohol containers out of recycling facilities and landfills.”
Brand & Industry History
Ontario’s wine industry spans three key areas of the province — Prince Edward Country, Lake Erie North Shore and the Niagara Peninsula, with the latter responsible for an estimated 90 per cent of the province’s wine grape production. Ontario has a deposit program for empty booze containers. Now manufacturers want one for all beverage containers. Circulr is designing a reusable wine bottle in collaboration with Reverra, a Quebec start-up that is building a $4-million washing facility in Boucherville, Quebec. The facility will use state-of-the-art technology to sanitize the bottles along with glass beer bottles and Bordeaux and Burgundy style single-use wine bottles. Quebec is adding wine bottles to its deposit system in March of next year. Both companies are working together with O-I Glass, a company historically known as Owens-Illinois, one of the world’s largest glass container manufacturers, which has plants in Brampton and Montreal.
What This Means
The report estimates an initial investment of $1.7 million would be needed to get the refillable program off the ground. Proponents of the plan point to a collection system that already exists in the form of The Beer Store, which takes empties and returns deposits on its own used containers as well as ones sold by the LCBO, which are part of the province’s Ontario Deposit Return Program. De Sousa said his company could provide the reverse logistics needed to return the used containers to wineries, and that he has had conversations with The Beer Store about a refillable wine bottle program.
Consumer Takeaway
A refillable wine bottle program would provide “a kind of domestic supply” of bottles, said Stoyka. “That would be a lot more secure from shocks like another COVID happening.” Customer response is overwhelmingly positive, although as with any new concept, some winemakers remain hesitant…struggling to understand the impact and opportunities reuse provides. The report by Circulr and Environmental Defence, called the Ontario Wine Bottle Reuse Opportunity Report, says creating a refillable program would rely on anumber of factors, including buy in from the wine industry, as well as theprovince, which could supply seed money to fund the wash infrastructure needed to sanitize bottles, or offer tax incentives to wineries that participate in theprogram.
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