Rafcycle Helps Cantina di Soave Strengthen Commitment to Circular Economy

 

Respect for the environment has always played a key role in the production philosophy of Cantina di Soave (Italy) a responsibility that the winery has never shirked. It has, rather, always fulfilled that responsibility with new initiatives and strategies.

One subject that this historic Verona,-area producer has always been sensitive to is saving energy involved in production. In fact, it continues to invest in new methodologies and equipment to lower energy use, and to ramp up, every year, its efforts to improve sustainability.

One significant component of this "commitment to green" is its joint project with UPM Raflatac (Finand). Production of a bottle of wine necessarily involves some waste products. For example, the siliconized backing of the self-adhesive bottle labels was until recently difficult to recycle, but now the new RafCycle® project has made it possible to recycle such waste into new paper products made by UPM paper manufacturing, thus avoiding wastage and giving such products a new life and a new purpose.

Since Cantina di Soave launched the program three years ago, it has recycled 62 metric tons of siliconized paper. By not discarding as waste those 62 metric  tons, and by recycling them instead, the winery has saved 760,583 kilowatt hours, the equivalent of electricity needed to light the Eiffel Tower for 15 months.

"Our participation in the RafCycle project is a wonderful example of a virtuous economic cycle towards sustainability. An apparently small action, such as not throwing away siliconized paper but recycling it, becomes, instead, on a large scale, a significant savings in energy. This exemplifies an intelligent way to utilize materials and resources, and just one more step the company is taking as it moves in that direction," commented Cantina di Soave Director Bruno Trentini.

For further information, contact Maddalena Peruzzi, Cantina di Soave, +39 045 6191250, or by email (maddalena.peruzzi@cantinasoave.it).