Michel Giannuzzi, President of FEVE, the European Container Glass Federation and CEO of Verallia Packaging said that the industry was surprised at the piece by wine correspondent Jancis Robinson, who also published the piece on her website, and urged her to not write off glass quite yet. In a letter to Ms Robinson, Giannuzzi states that no other packaging material comes close to glass in recyclability, health and taste preservation and has been providing these benefits to mankind for over 5,000 years. Responding to Ms Robinson’s call to wine drinkers to switch away from glass bottles for environmental reasons, Giannuzzi highlighted how glass has been continually innovating and is now 30% lighter than ever before, is 70% less energy intensive and emits 50% less CO2 than fifty years ago. He also explains how the industry is currently investing massively in exploring new breakthrough technologies to make production carbon-neutral – and working across the value chain to ensure maximum recycled content is used in all new bottles.
