Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), one the world’s largest wine companies with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, has included several packaging goals in its 2023 Sustainability Report, mirroring other wine companies’ efforts to pivot toward packaging that is more eco-friendly.

“We continue to tailor recyclable packaging options to meet consumer needs and work with suppliers to build awareness of our ambitions, improve data and promote circular economy outcomes and sustainable packaging design,” the company says in the report. “Sustainable Global Packaging Guidelines help to inform choices amongst the business, and we continue to refine and improve governance.”

Despite not achieving its commitment to implement 100% recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging by the end of calendar year 2022, TWE said it continued to make good progress over the year in reducing the environmental impact of its packaging. 

“The year has seen significant shifts and shocks to the post-consumer recycling industry in many of our markets – such as the effective cessation of soft plastic recycling in Australia,” TWE says. “We remain committed to the fact that packaging should be minimized, and where packaging is used, it must be designed to be recovered and incorporate increasing levels of recycled content wherever possible.”

TWE created an internal Sustainable Packaging Steering Committee in 2022. The committee is “helping to deliver TWE’s sustainable packaging strategy with not only a focus on recyclability, reusability, and composability of our packaging materials but also a focus on reducing our material usage and overall carbon footprint.”

Improving recyclability

“There are a variety of problematic materials used in wine packaging; however, the extent of these varies by location, given the range of post-consumer recycling schemes that operate across our markets of manufacture,” TWE says in its sustainability report.

This year, the company has worked to address what it deems several problematic materials used in its products, including:

• Transitioning from single-pack polystyrene shippers to a 100% cardboard packaging material that has been designed to have the same thermal properties. 
• Developing exit plans and beginning to phase out PET sleeves on bottles for its brands that use them. 
• Completing an end-to-end review on Penfolds Bin Series gift boxes to increase recyclability by removing magnets, laminates, plastic fitments, and tertiary plastic transport sleeves. 
• Conducting several sensory trials on alternate closures (screwcaps), capsules and bagnums (1.5L pouch) to continue to improve their recyclability without compromising on quality.

“We continue to innovate and find ways to reduce the total use of materials where we can,” TWE says in the sustainability report. “For example, the introduction of an integrated handle-less design across some of the bag-in-box range represents a saving in plastics used, increased recyclability and a more versatile handle for consumers. We continue to trial new materials across our global operations to ensure they meet a range of sensory and quality parameters.”

Additionally, in Australia over the past year, TWE has worked with the Wine Industry Sustainable Packaging Alliance (WISPA) to help identify and develop a post-consumer cork recycling service. “More work is required, but we are optimistic that a commercial solution (i.e., a product) can be found to this environmental challenge,” the company notes.

The full 2023 Sustainability Report can be found here.