Lightweight beer bottles promise energy savings

Beer lovers will soon be able to expend less energy on their way back from the bar and also do their bit to cut waste and carbon emissions after five leading brewers announced they had slashed the weight of their bottles.

Brands including Miller Genuine Draft, Strongbow and Black Sheep have joined forces with the Waste & Resources Action Programme's (WRAP) GlassRite initiative to cut the weight of their bottles, in a move designed to reduce energy use, waste, cost and supply-chain related carbon emissions.

New figures released last week by WRAP claimed that the five brewers - SABMiller, Scottish & Newcastle, Marstons, Wells & Young and Frederic Robinson - would save 3,800 tonnes of glass and 2,515 tonnes of CO2 a year as a result of the scheme.

A spokesman for WRAP said that the new bottles, which include Black Sheep brewery bottles that are 24 per cent lighter and 21 per cent lighter bottle;es of Cobra beer, are "going on the shelf at the moment".

He added that the GlassRite initiative was on track to meet its target of taking 60,000 tonnes of glass out of the waste stream by the end of 2008 through its work with brewers, wine companies and supermarkets.

Andy Dawe, head of retail programmes at WRAP welcomed the lauinch of the new lightweight beer bottles, claiming it underlined the extent to which the weight of glass containers can be reduced.