News

Wine gets canned for the environment

Two separate studies commissioned by Rexam, the UK-based beverage canmaker, have, according to the company, demonstrated that wine in cans“is not only an environmentally friendly and sustainable pack format but also offers beneficial cost savings for both suppliers and retailers.” James Graham reports

The first study, carried out by UK-based consultancy Incept, looked at the space efficiency when transporting wine in aluminium cans compared to transporting glass bottles and analysed the environmental effects and CO2 emissions during the transportation of still wine.

The study found that:

•Slim cans have half the CO2 transport related emissions of the equivalent 75cl wine sold in glass packaging

•Wine, in both 200ml and 250ml cans, produces fewer transport related CO2 emissions than other packaging formats

•Compared to glass bottles, to save one tonne of CO2, only 5,330 cases of 250ml slim cans need to be sold

As well as the CO2 emissions involved in the transportation of cans, Rexam was also interested to see the cost impact of the whole supply chain and so commissioned a separate study to look at four key areas: product, transport, warehousing and storage.

The results showed that:
•Slim cans are upto 17p per litre cheaper than glass bottles and have 2p -20p lower cost per unit in the value chain

•Suppliers could save between 2p and 8p per unit

•Retailerssavingsarebetween1p–13pperunit

ThetwostudieshavedemonstratedandbackupRexam’sbeliefsthatwineincans,whethermeasuredbycaseorlitres,isnotonlyanenvironmentallyfriendlyandasustainablepackagingformat,butalsooffersbeneficialcostsavingsforbothsuppliersandretailers.

NickGazzardCEOofInceptsaid:“Thestudiesuseanewmethodologydevelopedaspartofanon-goingsustainabilityinitiativebythecanmakingindustry’sUKbody,theCanMakers(BCME)andIncept,toidentifythesetrulysignificantcostandtransportCO2emissionssavingsrelatedtocans.Oftenthecostsandemissionsofspecificpackagesarelostinaverages,andthisinformationhelpstosavemoneyandtheenvironmentbyidentifyingthedifferencesandtheopportunity.”

Thisisgoodnewsforamarketthatisfeelingthesqueezeasaresultoftheeconomicslumpandislookingforinnovationstoappealtothelifestyleneedsof21-34yearoldconsumers.

Beyond its environmental and cost saving benefits, the can offers the convenience (single serve, on-the-go) and visualimpact (360˚ branding) that appeals to the all important 21-34 year old age group.