Glass has a long, loved heritage in the wine industry and it remains the best choice for wine on every front, whether its taste, sustainability, recycling or returnable packaging with manufacturers and brands alike committed to a more sustainable future with glass. 

British Glass is once again disappointed to be defending the relationship between glass bottles and the wine market.

Glass is 100% recyclable, with the majority of glass that is collected for recycling in the UK actually being recycled either back into new bottles and jars or into aggregates. As a singular material, it easily recyclable either at curbside and bring sites and can be recycled endlessly without a loss of quality. 

We are working with manufacturers to achieve net zero carbon glass manufacturing by following the roadmap set out in our net zero strategy and have already seen successful trials to cut the carbon emissions of glass manufacture by 90%. 

There has also been progress in the lightweighting of containers, with glass bottles 40% lighter than 20 years ago, and in recycling with glass being the second most recycled packaging material in the UK in 2020 and an industry commitment to a 90% collected for recycling rate by 2030. 

We appreciate that there is still work to do, however it is important that the focus remains on the long-term solution of a more sustainable packaging sector opposed to short term fixes that do more damage to our environment in the longer term.