None of my local retailers will take even pristine styro shippers. Forget the crappy ones that Bedrock uses.
Maybe Bedrock is reusing styrofoam that’s already been shipped several times. There are several retailers that take in your empty styrofoam wine containers (along with the box).
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+1. LWS is happy to have them and re-use them.
I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint in a variety of ways, and I will admit that the use of styro makes me very uneasy. But my anecdotal experience is quite different from David’s. I think styro is dramatically superior to cardboard, and I seem to remember someone here doing a little side-by-side to prove the point.
And I very rarely have problems with styro bits breaking off (unless I break them). And I don’t have cats, thank god
+1000
The town where I used to live had a recycling yard that included a bin for styrofoam, so while a bit of a pain to load up my car (and get pieces of styro all over), I would make several trips a year and wasn’t that bothered by it. But where I live now, there is no styro recycling - I have called all over and no one will take them. So they pile up in the garage, because I can’t bring myself to throw them out, hoping eventually I will find a place to recycle. Plenty of wineries have figured out how to ship without them.
Yes, styro is better than cardboard, but neither one is worth a damn.
My educational specialty and my work for the first 15 years of my career was mostly thermodynamics.
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Fortunately we have styro recycling here in Chicagoland. I stack them in the basement and my wife graciously loads up the vehicle. I agree the Bedrock deliveries are “messy.” I remember getting a shipment (not from Bedrock) where the capsules had a white powder on the tops. Where were those “Breaking Bad” styros recycled from?
Cheers,
JP
+1
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California, where you can’t get a f’ing plastic straw, soon won’t be able to get single use toiletries at hotels, but you are guaranteed to get a big pile of Styrofoam.
As I recall Navarro gives you the option of cardboard/pulp or styrofoam. Probably a fulfillment headache but I’d love the option to ditch styro across the board. I recycle the rigid plastic ones used by Paetra, which also seems to work fine.
+lots to the styro frustrations.
I love the cardboard “cube-style” shipper that Cabot uses - even has handles on the side.
R value of styrofoam is minimal.
These days when virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled, it is much easier to collect and tell people everything is being “recycled” just to get them off their backs. There are a Lot of challenges right now in recycling with one of the biggest being the consumer who throws every kind of material into a blue bin thinking it’ll magically be turned into something new (instead of contaminating the waste stream and being landfilled).
None of the shipping services or wineries I’ve contacted want my used styro. And even if they did, I suspect they would only get used one more time before the next person puts them in a landfill. So while a minor victory, that’s still a loss in my book.
AFAIK, styro isn’t recycled, its “down cycled” into lower grade plastics. If at all. A lot of recycling facilities used to ship America’s trash overseas, but now no one wants it. So they still collect recyclables but then end up in landfill.
Not simply CA. The hotel chains are looking into changing this nation(world)wide, as it is cheaper and money talks.
My Alban shipments are the same way, but I’ve noticed it mainly happens with the mixed bottle formats they use. The bigger ones (Pandora, Seymour) with the wax top destroy the top part of the styro shell.
I keep a few 2packs in the styro. When I moved storage, a 2 pack of Pandora fell from over 6 feet up straight onto the concrete floor and came out unscathed. It would have been a goner in plain cardboard.
I also dislike the styrofoam. Simply, don’t ship when the weather is wrong. Damage is extremely rare with even poor quality cardboard shippers, which I know from years of using them (as the shipper). The only damaged boxes I saw were either packed poorly by me or looked like they’d been crushed by a forklift.
The Wine Check is pushing HARD for our wholesale partners (wineries) to carry these new stand-up pulp shippers that we really love, but those wineries are using them only for Wine Check purchases, unfortunately. One good sign, however, is that the cost of Polystyrene Styrofoam is going up, with wine shippers, so the trend definitely seems to be turning a little bit, though it’s primarily the theory that Styro insulates better that is driving the market, even still. I suggest you share a quick email with any of your suppliers and ask them to switch to cardboard or pulp - they’ll listen if enough complain. End consumers drive the decisions like that.
If every disposable plastic that’s now used only once was used twice, that could cut the amount of those plastics produced by 50%. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
This is a major issue and I would love to find a suitable alternative. It sounds like bedrock is using cheap shippers, because the decent ones don’t break apart like that during shipping. I try to ship in used styrofoam as much as possible. Some people get bent out of shape by receiving a box that has been reused even if the wine inside is pristine. I don’t charge for the shippers whether they are new or used. I’ll only reuse them if the styrofoam itself is in really good shape. It pains me to see so much styrofoam go to straight to the trash after one use.
I don’t know anyone that enjoys using styrofoam. It is far more expensive than pulp pack and it takes up exponentially more space to store them.