Styrofoam is environmentally awful. Yet I just ordered up 3 cases of it.
If you've ever mail-ordered wine, you know that the most popular form of shipper is a molded styrofoam case to protect the bottles, with a tight cardboard box around it.
That styrofoam causes a litany of environmental ills. I have read other bloggers call for the end of its use in wine shipping. And in a different position, earlier in life, I used to encourage wineries to use alternatives, like hard corrugated cardboard, when shipping wine to me.
But now that I'm "in the biz," I see why the styrofoam addiction is hard to break.
It's simple: Cardboard does not offer anywhere near as much protection against a few hours spent in searing heat.
No container will keep wine cool indefinitely. If your wine sits outside for two days, it's in trouble no matter what it's packed in.
But a styrofoam container will prevent quick changes in temperature. So if your wine spends the morning bouncing around on a UPS truck on a 95-degree day, it will likely not reach the 80 degrees or so that would cause permanent damage.
We have 3 cases of very important wine to send cross-country in the middle of July. I like to consider myself an environmentalist; at the very least I'm an environmental-issues voter.
But I had to draw the line today at risking the quality of these 3 cases of wine in order to protect the planet. And I don't even feel guilty about it.
What's the alternative? We could pay for overnight shipping -- but that costs more than $150 a case. Or we could put the wine in an all-cardboard container, and maybe it would be ruined because the UPS driver doesn't get us the wine until late afternoon or evening.
It really hits home, how far I'm willing to go to protect the environment. In theory, I am. But if I order a case of limited-production Pinot Noir, shipping in July or August, I will not ask for a cardboard shipper. I confess: My Pinot comes before my planet.
Monday, July 14, 2008
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