St. Louis MO – The successful zero-waste program that TricorBraun WinePak launched several years ago and continues to offer to its wine industry customers incurs no expense for the customer. It has so far redirected more than 2,800 tons of waste to recyclers, according to Andrew Bottene, Senior Vice President – WinePak.
TricorBraun WinePak (www.tricorbraunwinepak.com) is a $134 million division of leading packaging development company TricorBraun that specifically services the wine industry. It is the largest supplier of wine packaging in North America. In March 2012, the company launched a four-point program to systematically eliminate waste. The four points were based on its four material streams: corrugated, plastic, pallets and waste glass. The strategy is to match the right recyclers with the company’s needs. Lanny Johnson, TricorBraun WinePak’s Manager of Repack and Warehouse Operations manages the program.
Information from the program can also be used to enable wineries and vineyards to obtain SIP (Sustainability in Practice) Certification. SIP is a rigorous sustainable vineyard and winery certification with strict requirements. Certification is based on science and expert input, independent verification, transparency, and absence of conflict of interest.
Waste corrugated in different forms has been reevaluated in 2015. While unusable corrugated continues to be recycled at no cost, TricorBraun WinePak now has an additional partner that can repurpose some corrugated materials for direct use in the packaging industry. Currently, over 1,200 tons of corrugated have been either recycled or repurposed.
Plastic waste, including pallet stretch wrap, plastic strapping and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is placed in totes that are provided without charge by a recycler and are strategically placed around the distribution center. This alliance between the company and its recycler has kept more than 50 tons of waste plastic out of landfills, according to Johnson.
Waste glass is a valuable commodity. Between 95 and 98 percent of the company’s broken glass is recycled. As of December 2015, TricorBraun WinePak has provided glass manufacturers with more than 1,600 tons of broken glass destined to become new bottles, jars or other glass products.
The biggest challenge has been recycling low-impact shipping pallets utilized by some suppliers. Unlike traditional pallets, which are made from hardwoods and are readily recyclable, these pallets are made from pressboard and plywood, which are not typically recyclable. TricorBraun collaborates with a local company that collects these types of products and resells them as a fuel source to the operator of a California incinerator.
“Since the program’s inception, more than 6,000 pallets that would have been destined for the landfill provide energy back into the California market place,” reports Johnson.
Recycling and repurposing materials that would otherwise be disposed of as waste are good for the industry, beneficial for the environment and have become an integral part of TricorBraun operations at every level. The company continues to work with outside companies, new processing methods and innovation to achieve the most beneficial results as all employees make this an everyday part of their work habit.
TricorBraun WinePak has offices in Northern and Southern California, Oregon, Washington, Canada and Mexico. It has been serving the wine industry since 1982. The company’s facilities include a $2 million repacking system that automatically transfers wine bottles from eight-foot-high stacks of pallets to individual wineries’ custom, 12-bottle cartons.
TricorBraun (www.tricorbraun.com) helps bring customers’ new and existing products to market efficiently as one of the packaging industry’s largest suppliers of glass and plastic containers, closures, dispensers and tubes from over 40 locations throughout North America and internationally from London, England: Guangzhou, China; Hong Kong, and Mumbai, India. The award-winning Design & Engineering Center gives our customers forward-thinking service based on consumer insight, understanding of the markets and creative solutions. In addition, advisory services range from preliminary planning, manufacturing oversight to an array of innovative warehousing and logistics programs
