Today there are many wines that are healthy for you and for the planet, with biodynamic, USDA organic, and Napa Green certification.
But how your wine gets to your glass might be as important as what you pour.
Which is the better wine delivery method: in a bottle or in a box?
A Question of Class Even wine bottles with screw caps don’t face the level of prejudice that boxed wine does.
Bottled Wine In a world swimming in plastic waste, glass would seem to be a sustainable packaging choice.
Gallo uses 30 percent of the recycled glass in California to make more than half of their wine bottles.
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.
Box Wine Shipping a three-liter box of wine generates about half the emissions per 750 milliliters.
Cardboard is no less recyclable than glass and, in fact, is recycled about twice as often.
But aluminum cans are recycled at higher rates than glass bottles and usually contain more recycled material.
Shouldn’t they just go into the recycling bin along with other paper, paperboard, and cardboard?
While good for packaging food, this plastic is not easily separated from the paperboard.
One city that does accept frozen food boxes for recycling is Phoenix.
Once the city determined that there was a recycling market for used frozen food boxes, and that their paper waste stream wouldn’t be contaminated by the amount of plastic in the boxes, the city began allowing residents to put frozen food boxes in their curbside bins, Gellenbeck explained.
San Diego also accepts frozen food boxes in curbside recycling.
Allowing frozen food boxes to be recycled in the curbside bin along with other paper products saves people sorting time.
Some cities sort frozen food boxes from the recycling stream at their materials recovery facilities, while others may not accept frozen food boxes at all, so it’s important to check your local regulations before you put these boxes in your curbside bin.
How Can I Recycle Frozen Food Boxes?
If your local curbside recycling program does not accept these items, you may have access to a drop-off recycling location, so be sure to make note of these options during your search: Add your zip code to find recycling options in your area.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the city of San Diego sorts all frozen food boxes from their recycling stream.