Greenskin Wine – Red Medley Pack

We are thrilled to submit The Greenskin Wine Red Medley Pack for consideration in the PACKWINE 2023 Design Awards. Greenskin Wine has been developed to satisfy the demand for premium wine in a practical, fully recyclable package, aimed at the market of premium wine appreciators looking for a sustainable way to enjoy quality wine anywhere.

The Red Medley Pack, comprising 6 x 750ml pouches, weighs just 4.8kgs and sits at 20cm cubed. With every part of the pouch being fully recyclable, this packaging not only diverts more waste from landfill, and reduces the carbon footprint of the product but also offers greater convenience and ease of use for consumers.

Finding the best pouch material – Sourcing a supplier to provide us with pouches made from the highest quality material that will protect the wine from oxidation, are robust enough to endure handling, look good, pour well and are also 100% recyclable.

The pouch design - With a MOQ of 100,000, it was a challenge to get the creative design 'look and feel' right from the outset, as each pouch is identical apart from the label sticker. The coloured label defines each wine's variety, region and vintage and also carries a QR code for consumers to scan to learn more about each wine's origins. From an aesthetic perspective, it was also a challenge to design a pouch that looked 'adult' and stylish to reflect the quality of the wine and to dispel the 'goon' cheap wine reputation traditionally associated with wine in a bag.

The carton design – Developing a recyclable carton that was lightweight yet robust enough to contain 6 x 750ml pouches and withstand handling during delivery to consumers Australia-wide.

Recycling Partner – We have been working with REDCycle as our recycling partner, who earlier this year paused their receival of soft plastics.

The pouch material - Stringent testing on numerous pouches allowed us to choose the right package/pouch for Greenskin Wine.

The pouch design - For the pouch artwork/design, we chose a very simple colour palette and a minimalist design to give a sense of quality and reflect the eco-friendly nature of our brand while satisfying licencing requirements.

The carton design – Sourcing the right company to customise cartons to suit our exact requirements.

Recyclability – Ensuring the pouches (including cap) were 100% recyclable and designing a suitable envelope that was accepted by Australia Post and our recycling partner.

Recycling Partner – Until recently REDCycle accepted our empty pouches and recycled every part of the pouch and return envelope. We have been advised that this is a temporary pause, and operations will resume shortly in some form. We have advised our customers to hold on to their pouches until further notice. As they are so small, we have not had any negative feedback from our customers on this to date.

On the consumer: Greenskin Wine allows more people to enjoy high-quality wine anywhere, anytime, without the inconvenience of carrying heavy, bulky, breakable glass bottles. Provides a safer environment in outdoor settings due to the pouches being unbreakable.

On the environment: The environmental impact is critical as each pouch takes 80% less energy to produce than a glass bottle and emits far fewer carbon emissions to transport due to its lightweight and compact nature. For example, when we transport one truckload of empty Greenskin pouches, to transport the same volume of empty glass bottles it would take 26 trucks! This is before the containers get filled, and sent to the market, where Greenskin is 60% of the weight and the space of standard 750ml glass bottles, further reducing harmful carbon emissions.

Greenskin Wine offers a free, easy recycling system. Each pouch is 100% recyclable. A free, postage-paid satchel is included in each 6-pack for consumers to place their empties in and drop into any post box to be returned directly to Greenskin Wine's recycling partners REDCycle. NB: We expect this to be up and running again shortly.