Plastic wine bags cut waste

Last September, Swedish wine importer and contract-packager Facino AB(www.facino.se) started packaging wine in plastic pouches as an alterative to the bag-in-box (BIB), on behalf of Swedish wine distributor Fondberg & Co AB. The 3-L pouch, which is a three-layer lamination with a tap similar to that of a BIB, is estimated to reduce waste by 90 percent. The two wines available in the new bag—South African Douglas Green Bellingham and Spanish Agramont Crianza—have enjoyed good sales at Systembolaget, the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly, and distributor Fondberg & Co. plans to add more products to the line.

The pouches are made by Saflite Packaging, a subsidiary of the South African company, Astrapak Ltd., Group(www.astrapak.co.za), at a plant in Cape Town, South Africa. Available in 1.5-, 2- and 3-L sizes, the pouches consist of 12-micron PET/12-micron metalized PET/150-micron coextrusion of HDPE/EVOH/LLDPE. The bag is 8-color flexo reverse-printed with a level indicator on the side and features a punch handle and a low-profile tap with tamper-evidence and a foil seal. The 3-L bag sells for the Swedish equivalent of $24. Says Magnus Lansman, brand manager at Fondberg, "We've sold more than 150,000 bags so far."