Packamama’s eco-flat format brings wine bottles into the 21st century by challenging base assumptions that wine bottles have to be round and made from glass. Game-changing improvements to shape and material enable Packamama’s eco-flat bottles to be more sustainable:
The shape advancement from round to a smart cross-section, flat design helps save space and means the format is still a bottle. As such, they’re not an alternative format but an advancement of a traditional bottle, with strong shoulders that conform to the Bordeaux design. This helps consumers retain emotional connection of enjoying wine poured from a bottle. As PACKWINE has previously covered from UniSA research, “this package type [eco-flat bottles] slightly outscored bag-in-box (anticipated as being the second most popular due to it being well-established in the Australian market) in preference. This may be due to its visual similarity to the conventional glass bottle, aligning more closely with what consumers expect a bottle of wine to look like when compared to the alternatives”. This innovative design is IP-protected in 35 countries across the world.

Eco-flat bottles are ~30% spatially smaller than a round bottle, but still contain the expected 750 ml. The large flat panels give a greater surface area to pack like books, fitting more product into the same amount of space. These space savings help reduce logistics costs and carbon emissions across the supply chain, and pack more into the fridge or bags for greater consumer convenience. At a time of soaring logistics costs both within Australia and for export, these logistics cost savings can be significant. The flat design can also allow horizontal and vertical packing arrangements, where two bottles can pack around the bottle necks to maximise spatial efficiency.

The bottles are manufactured in VIC Australia from 100% recycled PET, itself produced in NSW Australia. 100% recycled PET saves weight and energy in production, transport and recycling compared to glass bottles. This material also helps contribute to circular economies and puts Australian recycling back to good use in emotive and engaging products like wine. A lightweight material, it means our bottles are 84% lighter than a typical glass bottle in Australia, weighing just 63g. This is important as it helps slash carbon emissions in transport far more than glass. The CO2 savings that can be made through lightweighting a glass bottle to 330g, the current technical limit, are only 15%. Because rPET is shatterproof, minimal protective packaging is required.
PET is a stable, food-safe and inert material meaning there is no impact on the taste of the wine, however it only has a moderate barrier to oxygen. To overcome this, Packamama’s bottles use a barrier technology where real-time and modelled shelf-life analysis on the bottles has indicated shelf-life of between 19-21 months - ample time for everyday drinking wines designed to be consumed close to purchase.

rPET retains glass-like qualities as wine can still be seen in the bottle, unlike opaque cans or cask. A light translucent colour conforms to traditional bottle colours for wine and ensures that the bottles can be recycled. The bottles are fully and easily recyclable after use. We have designed for recyclability through engaging with APCO and the PREP tool. A specially chosen PP cap ensures that the collar of the closure can pass through the same recycling stream without contamination and without the need for the consumer to separate parts (although the lid is not yet recyclable due to the liner).

Most importantly, recycled PET is a low carbon material that, for the size of the wine industry, is widely available and scalable now rather than a far-off prototype that would only be commercially available in several years.