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One bottle produces 500g waste, researchers find
October 31, 2006
Emmet Cole
University of Palermo researchers have worked out the cost to the environment of producing one bottle of red wine.
Researchers found that one bottle of 2004 Terre della Baronia from the Milazzo winery in Sicily created more than 1lb (0.5kg) of waste and put 16g of sulphur dioxide into the air.
In total, the 2004 vintage of 100,000 bottles generated 22,000lb (10,000kg) of plastic waste, 11,000lb (5,000kg) of paper and large amounts of wastewater.
In response to the team's findings, the Milazzo winery has changed how it prints labels. It is also recycling plastic and has installed a system to reuse irrigation water.
The European Union's environment directorate uses information gathered from such studies to provide consumers with more detailed information about the environmental impact of the products they buy.
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 I am amazed at the statement that production of one bottle of wine results in "put(ing) 16 g(rams) of sulfur dioxide into the air."
Assuming that the unspecified content per bottle is 750 ml, 16g of SO2 is the mathematical equivalent of more than 21,000 ppm of end-product wine.
Any competent cellar-worker can tell you that normal wine production should not require use of more than 100-150 ppm in total for all vinification processes. And, that the amount of SO2 produced naturally by fermentation is insignificant. Many wines produced from sound grapes require much less than 100 ppm.
"large amounts of wastewater" ???? "Waste" indicates an end product with utility value of zero or less. Because of the location of wineries in extensive land areas for return of process water to ground-water, or use for irrigation, it is a gross editorial exaggeration to give winery process water the appellation of "waste" for environmental assessment purposes
The U. of Palermo researchers and press release info-merchant spinners need to get some basic training in accurate collection and interpretation of information and the construction of environmental and economic balance-sheet analyses of their questionable findings.
If the EU environmental assessment directorate uses this kind of pap to "inform" consumers of environmental impacts, I submit that said consumers are being pathetically misinformed. John Kirkpatrick
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