Single-Serve Wine – Do You Think It’s Green?

Is single-serve wine ever really green? Call me a stickler, but I don’t consider much of anything single-serve to be eco-friendly – it’s almost always better to buy in large packages. Especially when the single-serve product is coming in a plastic container. But, that’s where Volute stands out from the crowd. Rather than packaging that’ll end up in the landfill, Volute’s petite new bottles of wine – which come in red, white and rose – are packaged in 187 ml aluminum bottles.

From Springwise:

The California-based company highlights the bottles’ portability, pitching Volute as the wine that can be drunk anywhere, including no-glass zones like concerts, camping grounds and beaches. And given the bottle’s distinctive look, drinking from a Volute bottle might be more socially acceptable than drinking wine from a glass bottle, a can or—perish the thought—a juice box.

Aluminium bottles are also claimed to be eco-friendlier than traditional glass bottles. Aluminium can be recycled almost infinitely and the bottles require less fuel to transport than their heavier glass counterparts. To combat worries that aluminium might destroy a premium wine, the company points out that the packaging not only has the same qualities as glass but improves on it with it UV-blocking properties. Volute’s recognition of consumers’ desire for convenient and eco-friendlier products seems spot-on.

If this wine were organic, they’d really be getting somewhere. But, aluminum packaging is a start, especially if it doesn’t alter the taste of the wine. Props to Volute for thinking about the environment when providing people with cute little bottles of wine.

Link [Springwise]

The ‘King of All Stupidly Unnecessary Packaging Award’ Goes to AT&T

There’s unnecessary packaging, and then there is STUPIDLY unnecessary packaging. This lands firmly in the latter category.

Brett from TUAW was recently on the receiving end of a shipment from AT&T that stretches the imagination. His package from AT&T was shipped via DHL 2-day and came with a plastic bag and an invoice for “75011 MISC iPhone PPA BAG … $0.00.”

Was that box and bag packaged by robots? Are AT&T box packers so numb to their job that they don’t actually notice what they are working on? How did this dumbass trip up happen?

I’m gonna order me 30 or so of those MISC iPhone PPA Bags, they’ll come in handy the next time I have to move.

Eco Fail.

Link [TUAW] via [Gizmodo]

Green Packaging Fail: Like One Of Those Russian Doll Sets

The Fail Blog has a great example of a seriously over-packed package, looks like maybe a RAM chip.

Ouch!

Link [Fail Blog]

Tinkering with Packaging: McDonalds Looking For Ways to Suck Less

McDonalds is a GIANT corporation. I read somewhere that 27,000,000 people eat at the Golden Arches every day. I’m no fast food saint- I admit a lifelong love affair with the Big Mac. I know how disgustingly unhealthy they are (and everything else they serve), I’ve seen Super Size Me a bunch of times, but damn it all if it’s not tasty.

Anyways, McDonalds is responsible for a lot of solid waste via those 27 million daily customers and I guess they’ve been working to reduce the impact from all those thrown away fry containers and to-go bags. Here’s a video I found at Environmental Leader of Jennifer McCracken, environmental manager for McDonald’s global packing supplier showing some of the ways they are trying to make their negative eco foot print less devastating.

Video via [Environmental Leader]