At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dr. Heino Freudenberg, President & CEO of Vinventions, announced that the company will pilot the world’s first truly circular wine closure recycling initiative together with industry partner SABIC as well as Unilever and others starting in 2019.
“Today, ‘recycling’ simply means the collection and reprocessing of used products into other, usually less-demanding products. Currently, wine closures from Vinventions are partially recollected and transformed into recycled products like sparkling coolers, swimming pool liners and the like,” says Michael Blaise, VP Sustainability at Vinventions. “While this adds valuable additional lifecycles after our wine closures’ first product life, it is achieved by downcycling the materials.”
“With our exciting new approach, Vinventions will turn recycled wine closures back into entirely new wine closures,” adds Malcolm Thompson, Chief Innovation Officer at Vinventions. “In principle, this new level of circular economy allows the opportunity for an endless repeat of the recycling circle… in other words: Endless circles of life for our wine closures.”
“This technical breakthrough now also requires us to step up our efforts in efficient waste collection. We will create these endless circles of life for as many wine closures as possible,” concludes Dr. Freudenberg. “Much work lies ahead of us, but these are impressive first steps towards a truly circular economy in wine closures.”
