Wine School
Sustainability Smackdown: Is Canned Wine or Bottled Wine Better for the Environment?
Lighter in your hand and on the planet, aluminum wins any way you pour it.
By Author: William Smith
April 20, 2022
For great winemakers, sustainability is just part of the job. To grow happy grapes, thereâs no room for waste or shortcuts. From organic farming practices to their care for the vines, our winemakers know that the best wine is made in the vineyard. They put in the work for Mother Earth, and by choosing aluminum, so do we.
So, why are aluminum cans better for the environment? Well, theyâre ultra-light, infinitely recyclable, and super space-efficient. Let this metalhead break it down for you.
Is glass or aluminum more recyclable?
Thatâs a pretty good question, but hereâs a better oneâIs glass or aluminum more recycled?Â
See what I did there? It doesnât matter much if something can be recycled, it matters if something is recycled. And let me tell you, aluminum is the queen of recycling.Â
Our shiny metal friend is the most recycled material on the planet, and recycled in almost every county in the US. Thanks to its popularity, when you buy a ânewâ aluminum can, youâre buying 70% recycled material. So go ahead and crack another canned wine, you can sip easy knowing that same aluminum will be used again and again and again.
Okay, so, aluminum is great for recycling, but are glass bottles more environmentally friendly?Â
Nope.
Sorry, but glass isnât doing the environment any favors. Two-thirds of US counties donât recycle it, and even if you do your eco due diligence by putting bottles in a blue bin, they will likely spend their 4000-year life span kicking back at a landfill in early retirement.Â
Whatâs weight got to do with it?
News flash: aluminum is lighter than glass, like, hundreds of times lighter. Three of our canned wines weigh only half as much as a glass bottle, but they carry just as much vino. And letâs not forget that aluminum is stronger than glass too, so canned wines donât need the heavy layers of insulation their more sensitive cousins need for transportation.
Donât tell your fancy bottles that. Like I said, theyâre ~sensitive.~
But what does all this have to do with sustainability? Simply put, the lighter the packaging, the happier the environment.Â
Our light, space-saving packaging means fewer trucks burning fuel for transportation and less real estate for storageâdriving our carbon footprint down, down, down. Not to mention glass requires much more wasteful, protective packaging to ship safely.
Let's get nerdy for a second. Compared to glass, recycling a metric ton of aluminum saves over 300x the KW energy, 344x the amount of oil, and 5x the landfill space.
But reducing waste between you and the vineyard is just one eco-advantage of canned wine. When it arrives in your kitchen, their smaller portion sizeââ of a bottleâmeans you donât need to choose between pouring the last glass down the drain or having a headache in the morning.
Maybe the first R in đ”Reduce, Reuse, Recycleđ” was about hangovers this whole timeâŠ
DTCđ COâđ
Okay, thatâs a lot of acronyms. What is this, business school?Â
Let me take a breath.
The traditional wine supply chain leaves a whole damn trail of carbon footprints because of a little something called âthe three-tier systemâ. Itâs just a fancy way of saying that your wine has to pass from producer to wholesaler to retailer before living its best life on your countertop. As you may have guessed, all those extra steps mean more emissions and more wasted packaging. But thereâs a better wayâthe Maker Wine way.
Maker Wine ships Direct-to-Consumer (thatâs the DTC weâre talking about). We fill our cans at local wineries using a mobile cannerâthink the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, except it cans wine and doesnât flyâand ship 6, 12, or 24 cans directly to peoplesâ doors. Fewer steps, fewer emissions, and no environmentally-unfriendly middlemen between the vineyard and your tastebuds.Â
If you love wine and the planet, try premium canned wine, and drink what you love without the waste.Â
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Want to give premium wine a go in the convenience of a can? Check out our award-winning wines from local makers.
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About Maker
They make it.
Maker partners with best-in-class small producers that craft award-winning wines.
We can it.
We can the wine side-by-side with our winemaker partners, directly from their winery.
You drink it.
Weâll deliver Maker cans and their stories to your door in under 48 hours in California.