DE BORTOLI ENVIRONMENT INITIATIVES – PACKAGING AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

Recycling and minimising waste are not just worthy and responsible practices for any company but also economically astute. Over the past six years, De Bortoli Wines has focussed on ways to reduce the amount of packaging we produce as well as investigating innovative ways to manage waste – everything from glass, plastic and cardboard through to water and grape marc (discarded skins and stems) – the ultimate goal is to achieve waste-free wineries with managed waste streams that turns a profit. It is an approach that fits with our family-owned company’s philosophy of leaving a sustainable legacy for future generations.

De Bortoli was an early signatory to the National Packaging Covenant. A covenant performance indicator is to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging by 65 percent by the year 2010. This will be achieved through better design and production processes, closely managed disposal of used packaging materials and facilitating a greater ability to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Already we have been looking at the elimination of cardboard dividers, to substantially reduce the amount of packaging we use. We are also trialling lighter weight bottles that aim is to reduce bottle weight from around 500g to between 350 and 400g.
The recycling of packaging materials coming into all our wineries has been part of a larger scheme to look at managing all waste streams to make them useful to other parts of the business.

At our wineries in Bilbul, Yarra Valley and the Hunter Valley, waste-water is being treated and recycled for irrigation of crops. Grape marc is increasingly being used for composting and mulching purposes thus helping to improve soil quality, reduce the use of fertilisers and further reduce our consumption of water by dramatically improving water retention.

In NSW, De Bortoli Wines has been one of the driving forces behind the Riverina Winemakers Association’s environment policy. The policy concentrates on ways to reuse and quantify solid waste from wineries. Outcomes so far have included a register of recyclers, a regular newsletter and a TAFE level course designed at improving environmental awareness among winery employees.

The more we look at ways to reduce and recycle waste and manage our waste streams efficiently, the more we are discovering innovative ways to make this happen. It is an important part of our plan to lessen the impact of our winemaking on the environment and make De Bortoli wines secure and sustainable into the future.