Raise a glass to the environmentally friendly paper wine bottle



Paper tipple: The GreenBottle could be in supermarkets as early as next year

The familiar clink of a wine bottle could become a thing of the past after a British inventor created one made from paper.

Martin Myerscough is in talks with supermarkets to use his environmentally friendly Greenbottle from early next year.

The bottle, made of papier mache, has a carbon footprint just 10 per cent of a glass wine bottle – of which the UK uses 1.2billion a year.



The Greenbottle can also biodegrade on a compost heap within weeks.

Mr Myerscough, from Suffolk, has already invented cardboard milk bottles that are on sale at Asda. He said: ‘We’re hopeful the success we’ve had can be repeated with wine.’

The wine does not come into contact with the paper but is held in a plastic liner, similar to that of a wine box.

Wine expert Gerard Basset OBE, who runs the hotel TerraVina in Hampshire and won the title of World’s Best Sommelier in 2010, said: 'If the packaging will save time, money and is better for the environment, why not?

'But I expect it will only find favour with inexpensive, commodity wine.

‘I can’t imagine it will ever take off for fine wine.’



No more clinks: Experts think the Greenbottle will suit inexpensive but not fine wine and may not take off in restaurants

Other advantages of the bottles is that they do not break when dropped, and weigh less in a shopping bag.

The cardboard shell also helps insulate white wine after it has been chilled in the fridge.