March 18 is a Global Recycling Day and we want to celebrate it by meeting you with some amazing spirit brands championing sustainable packaging.
Why is eco-friendly packaging important for spirit brands?
Alcohol production leaves a huge environmental footprint at every stage of its manufacturing: from growing crops, sugar cane, and other raw materials up to the bottling and packaging.
Alcohol bottles are most commonly made from glass and plastic. Their production is harmful to the environment as during the manufacturing process, tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere every year. And, as the spirit market enlarges, so grows the contamination. On top of all of that, the production of bottles and packaging is expensive and highly influences the final price of the product.
However, many spirit brands are now looking for alternatives that will help them to minimize the packaging wastes by reducing the use of plastic, making plastic-free refill cans, 100% recyclable bottles, and promoting greener packaging.
We made a list of 5 spirit companies that incorporate eco-friendly packaging solutions into the brand's DNA .
Victory London Distillery
Victory London Distillery is a modern alcohol brand providing its consumers with a great choice of spirits including vodka, gin, and liqueur. They use a cold distillation technique which allows them to extract the light, savory, and almost vegetal aromas of the ingredients. The cutting-edge technology they use helps them to reduce water waste and conserve the energy.
Also, Victory Distillery was the first in the spirits world who started using eco-refill-pouches. Later, they moved to KeyKegs which allowed them to package enough to refill a bottle 28 times. For now, they reduced their packaging waste by up to 85% and their goal is to be plastic-free by the end of 2021.
Guys at Victory have already replaced their original plastic refill pouches with aluminum cans that are plastic-free and recyclable. Their next stop is to rebrand their Victory bottle making it lighter to reduce the shipping weight. Want to support their amazing initiative? Then take Victory!
Cooper King Distillery
At Cooper King Distillery, they already use a lighter alternative to heavy glass bottles. Their bottles weigh 250 grams less than the average spirits bottle and are made from 55% recycled glass. “This requires less raw materials, decreases transport emissions and saves money — meaning you pay for the liquid inside, not the bottle”, — say at the distillery.
The boxes for the spirits are made from shredded cardboard waste, and the tamper proof seals on the bottles are from paper, not plastic. With this packaging there is no need for plastic packing materials such as bubble wrap and inflatable packs. These innovations helped Cooper King Distillery drastically reduce its carbon footprint. And you can help them in their green journey by buying their amazing carbon-negative Herb Gin, Dry Gin, and other Cooper King products at Lassou.
Avallen Spirits
Avallen is championing sustainability at every step of the production process. Their bottles are one of the lightest on the market, plastic-free and locally-sourced in order to reduce transportation emissions. The bottle’s labels are printed on recycled apple pulp paper and the remaining pulp is distributed to dairy farmers. Only sustainable dyes are used to minimize the impact on the environment.
In 2019 Avallen was awarded a Masters medal for the 'Best Innovation in Packaging' at The Spirits Business Design Masters. The judges lauded its comprehensive design and sustainable cardboard packaging.
Made from nothing but apples, water, and time, Avallen Calvados is a great option for those who are looking for delicious and environmentally-friendly spirits brands. Take your bottle of Avallen at Lassou.
Nc’nean Distillery
Nc’nean whisky bottles are made from 100% post-consumer recycled glass, at first for the UK spirits industry. These bottles have a 40% lower carbon footprint than those bottles made from virgin glass and can be recycled again and again.
Other packaging elements, such as cork stopper, tamper, label, and gift tube are also made with recyclable materials. That means that Nc’nean bottles are plastic-free and planet-friendly!
All Nc’nean products are available from Lassou. Check out their Organic Single Malt, Botanical Spirit, and Aged Botanical Spirit Set.
Small Beer Brew Co
This Global Recycling Day, consider treating yourself with a pint of planet-positive small beer.
In 2019 Small Beer Brew Co became London's first B Corp™ certified brewery and that means that the brewery meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact. Their labels, boxes and business cards are all 100% recycled. For the packaging, they use unvarnished recycled cardboard sourced from UK paper mills.
“We won’t add anything unnecessary to our beer, nor our packaging”, — say the producers. Even the form of their bottles is chosen on purpose. Stubby bottles not just look great, this design allows 672L of beer to fit on one pallet unlike the usual 480L. This helps to enlarge the volume of stock per delivery and as a result, minimize the carbon footprint.
Choose your Small Beer and order it from Lassou!