What Happens To Your Wine Bottle Once It Hits The Curb?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 11th 2010 at 8:01PM

Once you finish your bottle of wine and toss it into the recycle bin do you ever wonder where it goes? It turns out that while in Europe wine bottles are often sterilized and reused. Here bottles, if they don't end up in a landfill, end up going through a not-so-carbon-friendly process of being melted, molded and reformed into something else. Now one company wants to make wine bottle reuse a standard for America. Sonoma-based Wine Bottle Recycling has a goal of collecting and redistributing 3 million to 5 million cases' worth of used wine bottles each year by sometime in 2010.

The company has secured a retired Del Monte fruit-canning plant in Stockton, California and plans a conveyor line with an optical sorting machine and a washing machine that can process over 70,000 bottles an hour. The sorting machine is necessary because while those 750 ml bottles may look similar there are actually around 400 different molds, differing slightly in glass thickness, nozzle length and all sorts of other tiny details that can make a big deal when bottles are being refilled and relabeled. Only around 20 of these styles make up the bulk of bottles but the machine will sort them all out. Bottles will be sterilized the day before shipment to a winery.

Getting the bottles may prove a challenge but starting in wine-friendly Northern California is a good start. According to a comprehensive article in the Bohemian the company plans drop-off "bottle shacks" around Northern California. Those dropping off wine bottles will be given a cash refund. Obviously getting restaurants, event centers and other large consumers in the mix is key. But the company promises to offer small wineries significant savings and every bottle that gets more than one use makes the world just a little greener.

Tags: wine, wine bottle recycling, WineBottleRecycling

Filed under: Wine, Green

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bdodd Jan 12th 2010 6:42PM

As a member of the management team at Wine Bottle Recycling, LLC. we certainly appreciate the positive comments regarding our wine bottle reuse program.

Although members of our team made certain comments relative to curbside recycling that appeared to be negative, we all know and understand that reuse is but one of many ways to improve our environment when it comes to glass bottles and that includes recycling and newer light weight bottles to name a few.

Curbside recycling companies operating in cities and counties, paticularly here in the North Bay area enjoy a positive reputation as being the best and most effective programs in America. Our program is evolving and we look forward to work with them and other material recycling facilities in general to help consumers and businesses offer a choice of bottles to buy and how they can recycle or reuse by using the existing curbside collection program.

We feel very confident that our business plan and concept is going to be very successful. However, the success will be based on our ability to produce clean, high quality bottles at prices attractive to wineries on a consistent basis. That does not change the fact that our community recycling programs are incredibly important to our overall goal of sustainability in our community, and always will be.

Thank you,

Bill Dodd
Wine Bottle Recycling, LLC.

icollect2007 Jan 15th 2010 7:33AM

I'm impressed. AND, I would love to see this type of recycling done in the Nation's Capitol-Washington, DC. Recycling programs in the DC area are, generally, terrible, and you would think that DC is a leader in the Green Movement!

Bob Orringer Jan 15th 2010 8:08AM

Rather than a comment ...i have a question. Dear brilliant editors at AOL....Why on earth would this "disgust" me? This sounds like an excellent win-win situation. As a manufacturer of bronze , I can tell you that being able to re-use anything in its current form saves tons of labor and energy and precious resourses. I applaud the people that have developed this 'better mousetrap' and wish them all the luck and fortune in their new venture. AOL....hire someone new to write your headlines. Your current employee needs to be recycled.

AL Jan 17th 2010 8:48AM

AOL writers have tabloid mentality. WINE TURS GREEN would have been better. As a kid I had a summer job at the Coca Cola and Pepsi Bottleing plants. All soda bottles at that time were reused. So why ishould wine be different?

AL Jan 15th 2010 8:47AM

AOL likes to use tabloid headings. Their writers are not creative. Headlines could be "WINE TURNING GREEN" or It was heard on the Grape Vine. Anyway as a kid growing up for a summer job I worked in a Coke and Pepsi bottleing plant in NYC. If soda bottles can be refilled, why not wine bottles. Nothing disgusting there.

fdburkhardt Jan 15th 2010 12:28PM

Excellent concept. I hope it is financially successful. Has there been any resistance to reusing the bottles by wine makers?

Colin Jan 15th 2010 1:22PM

I like Art made from wine bottles. Especially when a home is made out of them.

media wiz Jan 15th 2010 3:56PM

It's been a long time coming. Currently, only two states have a refund on these bottles so this is great news. I've been recycling them for a long time.

GM Jan 17th 2010 8:45AM

How much energy does it take to sort and sterilize the bottles?

Dave Jan 17th 2010 12:56PM

Well Bill Dodd sounds like another hippie pouring something down our throats that isn't needed. Remember, we need to be more like Europe don't we. At least that is what the hippies believe. I mean gee, they do everyting right in Europe don't they?

I worked a project for a glass company and YOU talk about THEIR carbon footprint (snicker) it's 7 times less to recycle glass bottles than make new ones.

Ok back to your socks and sandals.

karens Jan 25th 2010 4:50PM

I think this is a great business venture. The difficulty will probably be in the retrofitting and sensors to fit this scenario. How do I support this business here in the midwest? Can one become an official bottle drop off site and sell bottles to such a business? it sounds like this can be regionally duplicated and there may be enough bottle company sites that have been closed or downsized around the nation?
Karen