When Oregon-based startup Revino searched for the right manufacturer to produce reusable and returnable glass wine bottles for their winery partners, Revino says O-IPS was a clear choice. With 60 independent, local wineries that have signed onto their refillable wine bottle program, they needed a trusted manufacturer to mass produce high-quality glass bottles.
“Packaging is the main externality they have,” said Revino co-founder Keenan O’Hern. A lot of time and detail goes into making wine, so he wondered, how can wineries make sure their story is told on the shelf and in the consumers’ hands?
“This brings to life everything that’s encompassed within winemaking,” O’Hern said. “Wine is grown and crafted with purpose, but how does a brand share its sustainability practices and story with the end consumer? Our reusable and returnable bottles are a great way to help bridge the story and share a brand’s environmental impact .”
A Returnable Glass Bottle Revival
If you look far enough back into history, you’ll find this isn’t the first time reusable glass bottles (RGB) have been a part of the story. In the 1900s, reusable glass bottles were widely used for many consumer products. Since then, numbers have dropped significantly as other packaging alternatives entered the market – but O’Hern and his co-founder Adam Rack are looking to change this and bring about a RGB revival.
“It provides us an opportunity to say, ‘We need to collect these back, there’s an inherent value in the packaging,’” Rack said. And at the end of their lifespan, these bottles are ready to return to the recycling system – supporting both reusing and recycling systems.
A refillable glass bottle can be used and refilled an average of 25 times before being retired from circulation and recycled into new containers. As the most sustainably sourced packaging type, refillable glass bottles have the lowest carbon footprint, eliminating 85 percent of carbon emissions – and they
have virtually no end-of-life waste as they’re recycled, so they’re the ideal solution for businesses looking to significantly reduce their impact on the environment.
“Reuse is arguably the best solution that’s offered on the market,” O’Hern said. “We’re focused on a future that enables reuse to be something that enhances the glass ecosystem and supports local manufacturers that have domestic supply here! The real question is how can we create something that will evolve and perpetuate itself forward to create more possibilities for sustainability and stewardship?”
Oregon’s Returnable Glass Bottle Infrastructure
While fairly novel in the United States, an infrastructure for returnable glass bottles has already been put in place in Oregon. In 2018, O-I was among the partners behind a returnable, refillable beer bottle for the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC). O-I produced the BottleDrop Refillable Bottle that wasn’t just used by breweries, but wineries as well. In fact, Rack used the BottleDrop reusable beer bottle since 2019 at Coopers Hall winery, which started as a keg-only winery dedicated to using zero single-use packaging.
“But the beer bottle shape was not within the tradition of the wine industry,” Rack explained. “There is still a very strong commitment to the traditional shapes.”
Enter Revino – the perfect solution for wineries who have considered starting their own reuse programs but found high barriers to operating their own reusable bottle solutions. “They’ve been waiting for this,” Rack said. “They’ve hoped it can happen for quite some time.”
Thanks to Oregon’s BottleDrop program, consumers there are familiar and enthusiastic about refillable glass bottles. Oregon’s wine market also offers a unique opportunity, consisting of many small, independent wineries with loyal customers and wine club members who return again and again.
Refillable glass bottles are also economically advantageous for brands. They’re less expensive per use, and the cost per filling is reduced over the bottle’s lifecycle. It’s a win-win for the wineries, who can benefit from significant cost savings including reduced cost per filling and reduced freight charges with local supply – all while lowering their environmental footprint, which matters more and more to today’s consumers.
A Local, Sustainable Wine Economy
Now, O-IPS manufactures the bottles in a regional plant, while Revino distributes them to local wineries where bottles are filled and sealed. Revino coordinates convenient drop-off sites for customers – they can return bottles to the wineries, or at a partner location. Revino then collects the bottles, washes and inspects them, and returns them to wineries to be refilled, placed back on retail shelves and packed into wine club shipments for another life.
“The beauty of this is that it does work, that it’s viable,” O’Hern said. “When you start these systems, they have a flywheel moment, and once they’re started, they continue to go. It’s just about helping people understand that it doesn’t have to end here. It’s still the same bottle! You can still put wine in it, and it will still taste good.”
Another important component to the circular economy that Revino is building has been finding a local manufacturing partner, both to reduce freight emissions and costs, but also to have a local facility to send refillable glass bottles at the end of their lifespan to be made into new bottles again. “We have the opportunity to support factories that hire folks from our local areas,” Rack said. “We can continue to build a more sustainable economy with what’s in our backyard while supporting the people already working there.” Rack said O-IPS was a good choice because of “quality, local manufacturing with teams on the ground that can respond to issues and answer questions if anything arises.”
For O’Hern, the spirit of entrepreneurship was what stood out about O-IPS from the start, especially from a company that’s been in this business for decades. “We’re a startup company, and you need to be entrepreneurial to do that,” O’Hern said. “O-I’s enthusiasm at the table was infectious, and it really elevated everything we’ve accomplished.”
Consumers who visit Oregon winery tasting rooms or retailers will begin to see the Revino returnable glass wine bottles within the first half of 2024. O’Hern and Rack say that it will be just the beginning.
“If we step back and look at this as a broader market, having a successful reuse program in the wine space allows us to start saying we can do this with other beverages again,” Rack said.
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For small businesses looking to expand their reach, O-I Packaging Solutions opens up the door to new opportunities. With warehouse and manufacturing facilities across the United States, O-IPS can serve local markets with the speed and agility that emerging brands need in a partner to get to the market fast, while backed by the knowledge and resources of their global parent company – O-I.
