Festival goers travelling to Glastonbury have found a novel way to beat the ban on glass bottles being taken in – by buying wine and gins in paper bottles.#
The British made Frugal Bottle is the world’s first and only commercially available paper bottle for wines and spirits. It’s made from 94% recycled paper board, is five times lighter than glass and has a carbon footprint up to six times lower than a glass bottle.
The Glastonbury site warns people travelling to the festival: “Do not bring anything made of glass. All glass will be confiscated if found, including perfume and mirrors.”
But the site adds “alcohol for personal consumption can be brought onsite.”
Canny festival goers have realised they can therefore take in paper bottles of When In Rome’s Primitivo Red wine and Pecorino White Wine and Greenall’s Greener Gin – all on sale at the Sainsbury’s store in Street – three miles from the site.
Coldplay become the first musical act in the world to use paper wine bottles at a gig.
All 8,274 bottles of white and rosé wines provided by When in Rome in the Frugal Bottle sold out at their four Etihad gigs in Manchester earlier this month.
This produced a CO2 equivalent saving, calculated by CarbonCloud of 7.3 tonnes.
As the Frugal Bottle uses four times less water to produce and dispose of than a normal glass bottle, the band also save 23,414 litres of water - enough saved water to fill a 24ft by 12ft swimming pool or 41,204 pints.
Malcolm Waugh, CEO of Frugalpac, the British sustainable packaging company that makes the paper Frugal Bottles said:
“We always felt our paper bottle would be ideal for a festival. They’re five times lighter than glass and made from recycled paper which means its carbon footprint is up to 84% lower than a glass bottle.
“Because the bottle is made from paper, it also keeps the drink much colder for longer than glass. So people at Glastonbury can rinse the bottles out when they’re empty and then re-use them to carry water to stay hydrated.
“We’ve seen a real paper bottle revolution over the last three years and it’s great to see festival goers and bands like Coldplay embracing them too.”
When in Rome founder Rob Malin said:
“People want to drink more sustainably but with-out compromising on quality, and our Italian craft wines packaged in frugal bottles are a solution to this. There are practical benefits to having paper bottles too - they are much lighter than a single-use glass bottle and you don't have to worry about dropping and breaking your bottle of wine whilst bouncing along with the crowd to your favourite band.”
“Our paper bottles sold out at Coldplay’s gigs earlier this month and were also very popular at Cheltenham for Gold Cup week, we’re expecting them and our canned wines to fly out of the Sainsbury’s stores near Glastonbury in the next few days.”
“Glastonbury made the right decision banning single-use glass bottles, aside from their impracticality they are responsible for 40% of the wine industry’s CO2 emissions globally, and there are far more sustainable packaging solutions available such as cans, paper bottles and bag in box.”
Sainsbury’s Superstores stocking Frugal Bottles near Glastonbury (as of 22.06.23) include: Gravenchon Way, Street BA16 0HS, Midsomer Norton Superstore BA3 2DT and Frome Superstore BA11 4DH
Below is a picture of Frugal Bottles being bought by a festival goer at the Sainsbury’s in Street, close to the Glastonbury Festival site.
British sustainable packaging company Frugalpac creates and supplies recycled paper-based products with the lowest carbon footprint that are easily recycled again and don’t need to go to landfill.
Frugalpac, based in Ipswich, launched the Frugal Bottle in June 2020 – the world’s first and only commercially available paper bottle for wines, spirits and olive oils.
Frugalpac has seen such strong sales and interest from drinks producers around the world that it now has enquires to make more than 120m Frugal Bottles and has just opened a new 11,000 square foot Frugal Bottle factory in Ipswich to meet the global demand.
Frugalpac was previously praised by the Department for International Trade’s GREAT Britain campaign as one of the UK organisations “doing incredible things to help build a global sustainable future” in the run up to COP26.
More than 30 different drinks producers from around the world have launched 100 different SKUs of wines, spirits and olive oils in the Frugal Bottle. They are available in 22 countries including Japan, Canada, North America, across Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, and South Africa.
Other UK drinks producers currently using the paper bottle include:
- Silent Pool which sells its Green Man Wildwood vodka and gin in paper bottles in Australia and New Zealand.
- British eco-distillery Wildjac with its four flavoured rums in Frugal Bottles
- Redbrook Estate Bacchus 2021 English paper bottle wine available from Laithwaites
As well as enquiries to make 120m Frugal Bottles, Frugalpac also has strong enquiries from more than 100 other international brand, contract packing and packaging companies to buy Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines – including from Print Media Group (PMG) in Victoria, Australia and the Monterey Wine Company (MWC) in California.
Each machine will be able to produce 2.5 million Frugal Bottles a year.
Canadian packaging firm KinsBrae Packaging has agreed a deal to buy the first Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine - called FBAM-1 and install it in Canada to serve the North America market. It offers brands a filling service for Canadian and North America producers.
New co-packing filling lines for Frugal Bottles are emerging across the globe and can be found most recently in the US at the MWC and Australia at Sanector and Encore Beverages, following other lines established in the UK at Surrey’s Silent Pool distillery; in Spain at Bodegas Fernando Castro; in Provence, France at La Bouteille Qui Cartonne; while in Denmark Skanvin serves the Scandinavian market; and in Italy the original paper bottle pioneers Cantina Goccia now offer a dedicated filling service for wine producers.