Modesto winery makes perfect pairing to help cut carbon emissions
The winery’s bottle manufacturing site is partnering with a new local glass recycling facility. E.J. Gallo Winery in Modesto, California, has partnered with Halo Glass Recycling, the largest glass recycling and processing plant in North America. Each day, Halo brings in about 700 tons of discarded glass from curbside pickup programs and redemption centers across Northern California. The plan is to increase this to 75% of the material Gallo uses to reduce costs and carbon emissions. For every six tons of recycled cullet used, CO2 emissions are reduced by one ton. Halo’s senior commercial manager Sarah Bar noted that glass recycles well many times over, making it possible to recycle recycled material from discarded beverage bottles to clean glass cullet.
Published : a month ago by Heather Waldman, https://www.facebook.com/HeatherWaldmanWeather in Environment
The wine industry goes through a lot of grapes.Large wineries also go through a lot of glass.The staff at E.J. Gallo Winery knows that well. Founded in 1933 in Modesto, the winery now has a global reach. To help meet demands for containers, the owners established Gallo Glass back in 1958. “We make approximately two and a half million wine or spirit bottles every single day at Gallo Glass,” said the facility’s vice president, Nigel Dart.Those bottles all begin as a combination of raw and recycled materials. Dart said that currently, about half of the material Gallo uses is recycled. The plan is to increase that to 75%.Dart said that relying more on recycled material helps cut costs as well as Gallo’s carbon emissions. He estimates that for every six tons of recycled cullet that is used, CO2 emissions are reduced by one ton. To help Gallo expand its supply of recycled cullet, the manufacturer has partnered with Halo Glass Recycling. Halo, also based in Modesto, touts itself as the largest glass recycling and processing plant in North America.“We take in recycled materials, specifically glass and turn it into a furnace-ready cullet for glass container manufacturers to melt into new bottles,” said Sarah Bar, Halo’s senior commercial manager.Each day, Halo brings in about 700 tons of discarded glass from curbside pickup programs and redemption centers across Northern California. All of that is sorted, cleaned and processed down to the smallest pieces.“There is now technology to sort out glass between two and four millimeters,” said Bar. “That could add up to potentially the equivalent of potentially 12,000 tons of material that would otherwise not be able to be color sorted for a furnace.”Both Bar and Dart noted that glass is a material that recycles well many times over, making it possible to go from discarded beverage bottles to clean glass cullet and back to bottle again.“There’s no degradation to the material," Bar said. "There’s no weakening of the material so glass containers can really and truly be recycled over and over again."
Topics: Climate Change, ESG