IPSWICH, England — A British company is replacing glass wine bottles with a unique paper alternative and bringing the product to the United States. Frugalpac designs and manufactures paper wine bottles to help decarbonize the drinks industry.
“The overall carbon footprint of a paper bottle is much lower than an equivalent glass bottle. We believe it’s six times lower,” JP Grogan, product director at Frugalpac, told CBS News.
Weighing less than 3 ounces, Frugalpac bottles are almost five times lighter than traditional glass bottles, saving fuel and emissions in transportation. Since each bottle is initially flat-packed, it also means more bottles can be shipped at the same time.
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At their factory in Ipswich, southern England, pre-cut recycled cardboard is run through a specialized machine that bends and folds the paper into the shape of a bottle and inserts a plastic bag to hold the drink.
Grogan insists the new format won’t change the taste of the wine.
“Some of our customers tested it with wine and we tested it with vodka. People couldn’t detect a difference between our product and the product stored in a control glass bottle,” he told CBS News.
However, wine packaged in paper bottles will not last as long as wine packaged in traditional glass bottles. The company estimates red wine will last 18 months in the bottle, while white wine will only last about a year.
This year, Monterey Wine Company became the first U.S. company to adopt the innovation. The California-based manufacturer purchased assembly machines that allow it to complete the shipping of paper bottles in-house.
“Our partnership with Frugalpac allowed us to gain insight into the manufacturing process of this wine bottle and find U.S. cardboard production,” Monterey Wine Company’s Shannon Valladerez told CBS News suppliers and supply materials from the United States.”
Frugalpac hopes the reduced carbon footprint and unique shelf appeal of its paper bottles will convince more producers around the world to adopt its model and buy its assembly machines.
“The whole idea is that we place the machines close to the beverage producers and limit the amount of movement,” Grogan said. “We put the machines in different locations and allow them to source components from their own suppliers.”
