In 2006, Wrap launched its GlassRite scheme in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of the material and the industry that produces it. Three years on, Ben Bold reports on its progress

The challenge faced by industry to reduce the weight of packaging is nothing new - packaging firms, brands and retailers have long sought new means of reducing waste, cutting energy costs and taking the strain off consumers. But in recent years, technological advances, the inexorable rise of government-set waste and recycling targets, growing economic pressures and greater consumer awareness of environmental issues mean that the practice of lightweighting has gathered momentum.

The glass industry is no exception. Bottle manufacturer Ardagh Glass, for instance, has been lightweighting for 20 years. Even so, Sharon Crayton, head of marketing at the firm, says the push "has picked up recently because of the Courtauld Commitment and packaging legislation has focused on weight".

Bottle maker Quinn Group, says sales and marketing director Peter Fitzgerald, has been lightweighting for a "good 15 years", since the development of narrow neck press and blow (NNPB) technology, which enables the manufacture of a universally thin bottle. NNPB, combined with advances five years ago in servo-assisted machinery, has enabled greater control of the forming process. "The controls become more important the more you lightweight, as you have less room to manoeuvre," says Paul McLavin, sales manager of O-I Europe, who says his firm has been reducing the weight of bottles for "decades".

McLavin, who also chairs the British Glass Public Affairs Committee, says lightweighting is now more of a requirement than a ‘nice-to-do'. "There is pressure to reduce packaging waste, starting from a Wrap-Defra level. And retailers are pushing it hard as well, asking suppliers to use lightweight materials. And there is a drive to cut cost out."

Driving change
This growing pressure is why Wrap, the government-funded waste body, launched its GlassRite initiative in 2006 and why, today, GlassRite's list of partners includes some of the biggest names in glass packaging manufacturing, brand owners, retailers, logistics firms, merchants and fillers.

Nicola Jenkin, Wrap's drinks category manager, says: "What was different about it from a lot of Wrap projects was the recognition that to create change we needed to involve the whole supply chain, working with the glass sector and users as a whole."

GlassRite is an overreaching lightweighting initiative for all products packaged in glass and is divided into three categories: GlassRite Wine; GlassRite Beers, Ciders and Spirits; and GlassRite Soft Drinks and Food. Its predecessor was a project called Container Lite, which aimed to highlight the major steps made in lightweighting and identify those industry sectors where opportunities for further advances lay.

Wrap commissioned Leeds University Business School to research issues such as how much glass was consumed by the wine industry and what savings could be achieved by taking weight out of bottles. As a result, Wrap and its partners identified which products could be lightweighted and what barriers might arise.

One potential barrier was raised by brewers, who wanted to know whether or not lightweighting would let damaging UV into a product. It transpired, however, that UV exposure was more down to the colour of the glass than its thickness.

There are clearly quality concerns around lightweighting, though. As Jenkin says: "It should be a no-brainer. A glass manufacturer would not be putting out a product that's not technically sound."

Accordingly, there are myriad brand owners that are lightweighting, such as beer brewer Marston's, which this year embarked on a lightweighting initiative. The beer industry has significantly reduced its bottle weight in the last decade - for instance, a 275ml beer bottle, which 10 years ago would typically weigh in excess of 300g, can now weigh just 180g. More recently, Quinn has lightweighted bottles from 650g to 500g; and 500g to 360g. "Fifteen years ago, the weight to capacity ratio used to be 1:1, so a 330ml bottle weighed 330g," says Fitzgerald.

Lightweighting by its very nature reduces the effect of gravity on a bottle, leading to suggestions that the lighter feel of the containers could also take away from a product's gravitas. "It becomes a trade-off between brand and weight," admits Ardagh's Crayton.

Yet weight is not everything. Wrap's work examining this issue found that height is one of the predominant factors in a consumer's buying decision. "You'll find that bottles have got lighter but retained their height," Jenkin says.

Jenkin cites Hall & Woodhouse's Badger range (see case study, above), where the bottle shape was changed from a male-orientated bottle to a slimmer, less masculine, design. "Woodhouse is now confident about the change, but they needed to talk to their consumers," she says.

Consumer acceptance
Communication with the consumer is therefore key if a brand owner is to make a significant aesthetic change to a familiar product. Marston's and First Cape both provided explanations on their labels as to why they were lightweighting.

But Quinn's Fitzgerald is unconvinced by the concern over the fickle tastes of consumers, be it for colour or weight. "My personal view is that consumers don't give two hoots," he says. "We're trying to find out, via Wrap, whether consumers are all that concerned about glass colour - it's very important to marketers, but how important is it to consumers?"

Accordingly, Quinn is looking at producing a glass which errs from the standard emerald green and towards a flint colour. "If we produced a glass with a specification that was softer in spectrum between green and flint, then we could use more recycled material," he says. Quinn has even developed a colour which sits between the two, and has dubbed it ‘Not'.

Any initiative that seeks to reduce energy in the manufacturing process, cut transportation weight and increase recyclability boosts environmental credentials. But what difference does it really make? "The amount of energy needed to melt a 190g, 300ml bottle is far less than for a 330g bottle," says Fitzgerald. "But it's probably more important that the amount of recycled glass doesn't change - so you can make more containers for what you melt and the downstream distribution cost is less, because it's lighter and the proportion of recyclable glass is not diminished."

Differing impacts
But McLavin explains that it's difficult to quantify the environmental impact because there are so many variables. "For instance, say you've got two glass manufacturers making beer bottles. There are different distances from the brewery to the sand quarry and they have different-sized machines - each factor has an effect on the carbon footprint."

Cost is another attractive aspect of lightweighting and Jenkin reckons, at the very least, a lightweighting strategy must be cost neutral. "What we've found is that if a product is high selling, the payback period can be incredibly quick - it can be weeks."

McLavin says a switch to lighter bottles can save money, up to a point: "It's a bit of a curve - the lighter you go then potentially you're making it more technically difficult to control. So there must be a point at which you get to an optimum weight." Which would suggest it makes more economic sense lightweighting heavier bottles rather than already-light packaging.

Jenkin says the beer industry, in particular, is looking on with interest at advances in tooling in glass manufacturing to make bottles lighter. "[But a bottle] must be robust and it mustn't break. And it goes without saying that if you feel a product is premium or has a ‘story' attached, you don't want to lose that."

There is still some resistance to lightweighting. But McLavin says it is mostly in "some markets in the Far East, where elaborate packaging sells a product". It's less so in the UK, he adds.

Moreover, the fact that traditional spirits brands that reach the older consumer have cut their bottle weight down from 500g to 400g and below is an endorsement of how lightweighting is continuing to gather pace.

CASE STUDIES

Rather than adopt the traditional means of importing wine in bottles, the retailer decided to bulk-ship the wine in containers so that it could then be bottled on arrival in the UK. The wine is transported in 24,000-litre recyclable flexi-tanks, which hold the equivalent of 32,000 bottles of wine.

Waitrose claims that by reducing its shipping weight by 16 tonnes it has cut its carbon emissions by 47 tonnes a year - the equivalent of taking 14 cars off the road. It has also slashed its end-to-end production costs by up to 40%.

The success of the scheme has led Waitrose to consider importing more of its wines in bulk containers.

Nick Room, Waitrose's wine buyer, says: "This exciting method of transporting wine has no effect on the eventual quality or taste of the wine and is cutting down on the environmental damage that comes from the inevitable transportation of wine."

Hall & Woodhouse
Last year, the UK brewer redesigned the bottles for its portfolio of Badger ales - introducing a new shape, new label and a lighter weight. Advances in glass manufacturing technology allowed the brewer to emboss the bottles, which it claims improves the style and shelf presence of its premium ales.

Hall & Woodhouse was careful not to alienate those loyal to the brand and therefore involved its consumers in the process, conducting research among customers and giving them a say on the bottle redesign.

The initiative was not restricted to just a handful of Hall & Woodhouse's brands. New bottle designs were created for ales including Tanglefoot, Badger First Gold, Fursty Ferret, Golden Glory, Golden Champion and Harvester's Ale.

The lightweighting exercise has resulted in an overall glass reduction of 27%, cutting Hall & Woodhouse's glass packaging waste by 1,500 tonnes a year, the equivalent of 1,100 tonnes of CO2.

Rick Payne, Hall & Woodhouse's brands marketing manager, says: "Our new bottle is taller and slimmer, so it looks contemporary and far more elegant on the table."