Shipping a three-liter box of wine generates about half the emissions per 750 milliliters. A standard 750-milliliter bottle of wine traveling from a vineyard in California to a store in New York generates about 5.2 pounds of carbon-dioxide. Glass is heavy and cannot be packed as tightly as boxes.

The biggest environmental problem with glass wine bottles is shipping. Industrywide, however, up to half of a wine bottleвЂ™s carbon footprint come from the glass bottle itself. Gallo uses 30 percent of the recycled glass in California to make more than half of their wine bottles. Some wine makers are using recycled glass in their bottles. Unfortunately, only about a third of wine bottles actually get recycled - the rest end up in the garbage. Glass bottles have been around for centuries, and glass is easily recycled. In a world swimming in plastic waste, glass would seem to be a sustainable packaging choice. There is also growing evidence that boxing wine is more eco-friendly than bottling it. Cost-cutting vintners and bargain-hunting consumers may have been the early adopters of boxed wines, but the number and variety of quality wines in boxes is growing. It is true that wine in a box is cheaper than wine in a bottle - in large part because bottling wine is more expensive than boxing it. Many people assume that all boxed wines are just a step above fortified wines. Which is the better wine delivery method:В in a bottle or in a box? A Question of ClassД®ven wine bottles with screw caps donвЂ™t face the level of prejudice that boxed wine does. But how your wine gets to your glass might be as important as what you pour. Today there are many wines that are healthy for you and for the planet, with biodynamic, USDA organic, and Napa Green certification.

Is wine safe in plastic bottles