You can recycle glass over and over without losing quality. So what’s not to love about glass wine bottles? (Plus, they’re classier than boxed wine, and some of us are still trying to prove to ourselves we’re Grown-Ass Ladies.) Answer: the fuel required to lug said fancy bottles of wine from Napa Valley to your mouth.
Dammit.
That’s the main selling point of Paperboy, wine that comes in a recyclable plastic bladder (is there a grosser phrase?) inside a compostable bottle-shaped cardboard container. It has a SHAPE, see! It’s not exactly boxed wine!
According to Businessweek, the “container is made mostly of industrial paper waste that’s 80 percent lighter than its glass cousin, so it takes less fuel to transport.” (Umbra compares wine container options here and here.)
PaperboyOh, the places you’ll go.
It’s hard to argue with 80 percent, but Businessweek doesn’t have to bear potentially judgey glances from in-laws over dinner. Then again, there’s no chance of a cardboard wine bottle breaking during a drunken family brawl. Here are more arguments in favor of the bottle:
[Winemaker] Truett Hurst estimates that one cross-country truck of Paperboy wine saves approximately 61 gallons of diesel fuel and prevents 1,365 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Paper bottles are also less energy-intensive to make, with a carbon footprint that’s 67 percent less than that of glass containers.
If you’re into it, Safeway sells Paperboy’s Paso Robles red blend and Mendocino chardonnay for 15 bucks a pop. Drink up, then cackle at the Etsy sellers you’re putting out of business.
