"Manufacturers are using these boxes with increasing frequency because the amalgamation of materials preserves the contents, making it unnecessary for the product to be shipped in a refrigerated truck or stored in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, and it spares the energy required for refrigeration." Source: Eco-Cycle. They use juice boxes in Europe to store everything, including milk. But I'd be really curious to know just how far along the recycling of these containers has really come. Maybe someone will come up with nano-glass, lighter, thinner, maybe even unbreakable...

These containers are called 'aseptic' which means 'germ free.' Although it has polyethelene, aluminum and paper board, these layers are very difficult to separate and are therefore difficult to recycle. Also, because they contain aluminum and a plastic lid they are not compostable. Most cities including Denver, where I live, will not accept these. Boulder, of course, does. I would have to drive up there to drop them off to be recycled (ecocycle.org). A glass bottle can become another glass bottle the same day it is recycled at ecocycle. I do appreciate the reduced need for refridgeration, and the weight is much less. There are pros and cons to every material but I think I'll stick with glass.

In Germany you can get organic-wine in deposit bottles. Cause i don´t know any reasonable product made of old juice boxes i think deposit bottles are the better way of wine packeging, especially if you buy regional wines which shortens the bottles ways.

I have to agree with the other posters. Aseptic packaging is nice, and thankfully it can be recycled here in Seattle, but glass is FAR easier to recycle (both in availability and in process).

And as a homebrewer, I feel that I also need to mention that there are REASONS why vintners use bottles, specifically related to the shape (compare the difference in the bottom of red vs white wine bottles). The neck shape of the bottle also plays a huge role in pouring, both of wine and beer, to minimize pouring out of settled matter (tanins, spent yeast, etc) into the drinker's glass.

Liek everyone else, I can see the benefits of its lighter weight but glass is better for recycling. Also by removing the need for a cork these bottles actually damage the environment.

"By pulling a real cork you could help to save 42 species of bird, including the rare Black Vulture and the Short-toed Eagle." - This is taken from the Cork oak exhibition at the Eden Project, Cornwall, UK.

The environmental cost of shipping glass around is extremely high, though-- both before purchase and during all phases of disposal. Although glass is fully recyclable, I have to agree that this product has a lot of potential to reduce waste (in the form of energy needed for shipping). Here's hoping they get to work on a compostable version soon.

Plus, this is wine-in-a-box moving up in the world. Gotta love that.

Tetrapak is not as easily recyclable as "they" claim and it looks like most of the tetrapak containers are NOT recycled.
If this is the case it is a fake argument.
See for instance
http://www.perc.ca/PEN/1991-10/fleischer.html
I think TreeHugger should investigate this more deeply :)
If the pak is recycled it sounds interesting as one can always transfer the wine into a carafe that is more pleasant aestitically and most often good for the wine :)

Are you a recysle specialist with a degree that you can prove? How can you claim most of its production can not be recycled.

It's true that currently not all community recycling programs accept Tetra Pak asceptic cartons, but this number is growing smaller and smaller by the day and the rate of recycling between glass and "Tetra" is shrinking.

Even accounting for this, French rabbit still comes out ahead of glass bottles in lessening the impact on the environment. We take great pains to think about how our package makes an impact along its entire life cycle - not just recycling but tranpsortation, energy consumed during production, and energy consumed in the recycling process.

The article noted the huge impact (25 trucks to 1) during shipping. Also, if all table wine in the US were packaged in French rabbit's cartons instead of glass bottles, it would result in greenhouse gas savings equivalent to removing 377,000 cars from the road!

Our cartons even have less packaging than an eggshell: while a glass bottle is approx. 40% of the weight of a bottle of wine, and an eggshell is 7% of the weight of an egg, French rabbit's carton is only 4% the weight of the liter of wine. French rabbit helps the environment by reducing packaging and reducing energy consumed throughout the product's life cycle, and by its recyclability.

We've also gone a step further and partnered with American Forests to plant trees to further offset our impact on the environment. In 2006, we planted 30,000 trees!

Ze Chief Hare @ French rabbit wines

What I want to know is why no PET wine bottles? They're light, strong, recycled everywhere and even the beer industry is using them now.