Deposit on wine bottles: initiative from BaWü is to be extended to all of Germany

Wine in returnable bottles will soon be available all over Germany.

A reusable initiative has developed a 0.75 liter bottle that can also be returned to supermarkets.

Düsseldorf/Stuttgart – Germans like to enjoy a glass of wine – or several.

There are many myths about the juice of the grape, but it has been very popular for thousands of years.

Also in the 2020/2021 wine season: A total of 17.2 million hectoliters were drunk in Germany, as

determined by the

Over a billion wine bottles are bought by German consumers every year and then emptied.

Most of them end up in the used glass container and are processed into new bottles.

This is laudable, but still a very energetic affair.

Rinsing and reusing the bottles would make perfect sense given the high energy prices.

However, a comprehensive deposit system for wine bottles as well as for beer, mineral water or other beverages does not yet exist.

Wine in returnable bottles will soon be available all over Germany – also in the 0.75 liter format

An initiative from Baden-Württemberg now wants to change that: With a newly developed 0.75 liter bottle, a nationwide reusable system should soon be available for the entire industry.

So far, almost every winery or cooperative has its own bottle designs.

They come in a wide variety of shapes and colors.

In order to achieve more reusable bottles in the wine industry, however, standardized bottles are needed.

So far, these have been available in Baden-Württemberg in 1 liter format.

However, 0.75 liter bottles are more common and popular with consumers.

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A total of 17.2 million hectoliters were drunk in Germany in the 2020/2021 wine season.

(symbol photo)

© Inner Vision Pro/IMAGO

A nationwide return system for returnable wine bottles must be expanded

Wein-Multiweg eG has now specially designed such a returnable bottle and presented it to the public for the first time at the trade fair: It is dark green, with an unusually long bottle neck and a robust bumper, as reported by Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk (SWR

)

Initial contacts with potential sales partners from other regions have already been made.

In order to expand the deposit system nationwide, the next step would have to be to organize that returnable bottles could also be collected and washed in northern or central Germany, for example.

"Something like that can happen very quickly, something like that can also happen slowly," said Werner Bender, the board member of the newly founded Wein-Multiweg eG, at the trade fair, according to the

.

The first wine can probably be filled into the new returnable bottles in summer or autumn

The first new 0.75 liter returnable bottles are expected to be filled in the summer or autumn of this year.

How high the deposit will be has not yet been decided.

The reusable pool of 0.75-liter returnable bottles should start with around one million.

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So far, it has been planned that the new bottles can be sold in wine shops and specialist beverage shops.

In principle, however, they are also suitable for being sold in common deposit machines in supermarkets, just like other beverage bottles.

After all, supermarkets also sell high-quality wines and, as is well known, many consumers like things to be practical and like to do all their shopping at once.

How high the deposit will be has not yet been decided. 

Glass returnable wine bottles can be refilled up to 50 times

In Baden-Württemberg, returnable 1-liter bottles have been used up to now, and they will continue to exist.

24 million such bottles are washed every year

at the washing center in Möglingen in the district of Ludwigsburg .

The expansion of the flushing system in other regions is another important step towards a nationwide reusable system.

According to the Federal Environment Agency, returnable glass bottles can be refilled up to 50 times.

This saves energy and resources compared to disposable bottles.

According to the German Wine Institute, around 45 percent of the CO₂ footprint in wine production is due to the one-way bottle alone.

Rubric list image: © Inner Vision Pro/IMAGO