Environment

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) has announced that it is extending its GlassRite scheme beyond the UK with three new international representatives.

Environmental consultancy WSP Environmental is overseeing the second phase of the GlassRite project, which includes the appointment of three representatives covering Australia and New Zealand, America and Europe.

Wrap beverage category manager Nicola Jenkin said that they are investigating how they can assist the major wine suppliers in moving into lighter bottles or bulk import.

She added that the representatives will be playing a "brokering role" and will address the regional demands of growers in context.

In the UK, the project will continue to focus on lightweighting trials. These will investigate the creation of a 300g wine bottle and the lightweighting possibilities in the Champagne and sparkling wine sectors.

Wrap will also continue to investigate the economics surrounding bulk importing of wine and whether the UK has the bottling capacity and standards required to increase this.

In addition, Wrap is developing a business-to-business and consumer facing e-directories that will provide international directories of lightweighted bottles.

The first phase of the GlassRite programme was undertaken from summer 2006 to March 2008 under the management of British Glass and backed by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).

More than 350 different wine labels have moved to lighter-weight bottles during the project, resulting in savings of 11,400 tonnes of glass per year.