Glou Wine prioritises reuse over single use
A customer refilling a reusable glass bottle with wine. Over 65% of wine industry greenhouse gas emissions come from glass packaging and transportation, with significant heat required to melt and recycle wine glass bottles.
Fitzroy’s Glou is one business striving to make a change, offering wine, spirit, cocktails and kombucha in reusable glass bottles which customers can fill straight from their 30-litre kegs.
According to co-owner and operations manager Rahel Goldmann, Glou’s reuse concept is designed to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability by creating a business model that prioritises reuse over single use.
What it means for the business
The Glou team worked with their suppliers and staff to create a simple system that makes it easy for their customers to minimise waste.
To begin with, winemakers supply their wine to Glou in reusable Keykegs straight from their barrels, saving time and cutting costs by not having to purchase cork, label individual bottles, or arrange storage and transportation of fragile glass bottles.
These kegs are then connected to taps at the wine bar and retail outlet, ready for customers.
Staff are keen to support Glou to make it as sustainable as possible by learning new skills, including communication with their customers, and minimising and managing waste, resources and associated produce.
What it means for customers
First-time Glou customers can choose a reusable glass bottle with an $8 deposit before filling it with the wine of their choice from the Keykeg taps.
After finishing their wine, customers can either return their bottle for a deposit refund, or swap it with another bottle.
Glou then looks after the cleaning and sanitisation of the used bottles before they go back on the shelves.
‘The return rate is very high, with many return customers giving us lots of positive feedback.’
The impact
In the first two years, Glou has saved an estimated 60 tonnes (or approximately 120,000 glass bottles) from becoming waste.
What's next?
Glou is continuing to work with both their suppliers to reduce packaging waste and their waste contractor to make their recycling more efficient. In addition to liaising with their landlord to allow for solar panel installation on the roof, Glou is also aiming to develop milkman-like delivery services and waste-free solutions for medium or large-scale offsite events.