Does wine have to come in a glass bottle?
A United Kingdom-based company has an alternative that uses a cardboard outer layer with a flexible pouch inner that is gaining traction by offering packaging with a smaller carbon footprint.
Frugalpac Ltd.'s "paper" bottle is similar to boxed wine, which has a bag in a box, but is geared at a more traditional bottle size — 750 milliliters — and mimics the standard bottle. The company based in Ipswich, England, also sells manufacturing equipment, the "Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine," in addition to producing completed bottles for customers. That makes its Frugal Bottles available in multiple markets. California's Monterey Wine Co., a bottler for a range of California wineries, has the first U.S. paper bottle machine. The equipment takes little floor space, allowing production close to wineries, Frugalpac says. Bottlers work with local printers, flexible packaging suppliers and injection molders for the closures.
Frugalpac opened in 2011 and began making the Frugal Bottle in 2020. The exterior is made of 94 percent recycled paperboard that is clearly marked for easy separation of the paper for curbside recycling. The pouch must be taken to film recycling drop-off sites. Frugalpac switched to a monomaterial polyethylene pouch this year to make the film easier to recycle.
The company says the bottle is five times lighter than a traditional glass wine bottle and has a carbon footprint six times lower.