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Great to read the Society’s progress on carbon footprint by Dom de Ville, and Simon Mason’s Message in a Bottle in the current 1874. I cant see these online, but the paper version arrived safely.
Wine in a box offers huge benefits for sustainability, some described in the articles. But what about domestic recycling? You don’t have to keep your wine in its box - take an empty wine bottle, make sure it’s clean, fill it from the box and put in a cork. No carbon emissions, transport costs or trips to the bottle bank.
A hand-operated corker makes the job easy, but take care to use good quality corks, to avoid dribbles seeping out. Both are easily available in large superstores and DIY shops in wine producing areas on the continent, and online in the UK. I’ve saved much more than the cost of the corker, compared to the bottle price of similar quality wine. So come on, Simon and Dom, let’s have more Bag in Box wine.
BiB wine is often sold soon after harvest – a few months in bottle does it the world of good. You probably won’t keep it in bottle more than six months, and as you wash out the empty bottle you can pat yourself on the back for sustainability, and then fill it again… and again.
First release bulk buy in box …
Genuinely - honestly I agree.
The bag shrinks so no problem with oxygen or contaminants getting into the wine, so the first glass is as good as the last (several days later) - and let’s face it… what is so special about a glass bottle ?
The ONLY problem is the historic baggage of awful bag-in-box (cough…stowels-of-chelsea) wines. I’m looking forward to TW Fleurie - which might be a gamechanger.
Ah… Stowells of Chelsea!
Whilst it’s less weight than glass, I didn’t see anything about how the plastic in the bag and tap are dealt with once the wine is drunk. Maybe I missed it.
Perhaps the best solution is to drink less wine 
Aren’t bags limited to say two months before going off guess bottling gets round this
That’s the point. Buy a BiB. Bottle it yourself and enjoy for months instead of weeks (?) Or hours(?)
With one 5L BiB you fill six or seven bottles to enjoy when you want. Then you buy another BiB and refill the bottles
Every time you re-use the bottles you save all the emissions of bottles production and transport
Win win. Cheaper wine ( good quality from TWS) and lower carbon 
Not really, the wine is kept in the bag without oxygen… if you then go to bottle it yourself as @ColinDavid is saying, you are then oxygenating the wine . Some BIBs last longer than a few weeks and increasingly looking at a couple of months .
Bottling wine from a BIB defeats the purpose of keeping the wine fresh and free from oxidation not to mention bacterial spoilage .
But how boring to have to drink so much of the same wine in a short period. Boxes are, I suppose, for the same people who buy cases of wine.
Not really ! BIB are for people who want to drink a young wine from a container that’s easy to transport, ideal for travel etc… predominantly people who buy cases of the same wine want to experience that wine at varying stages of its development . The BIB isn’t going to offer that .
(sorry for lowering the tone of a sensible discussion on sustainability)
Yes and no. That’s one reason for buying a case, but many people just buy a lot of what they like, and then buy another case when it’s all gone.
^ This is just asking to be tuned into a natural wine dispenser at a hipster cafe bar, original branding left intact. From the suggested other products
I think you’d want to reduce exposure to oxygen. Things like using a tube to fill the bottle from the bottom up rather than “sprinkling” into the bottle from the bag, and possibly giving it a CO2 flush before corking. Both easy to do but add extra steps plus potential sources of contamination.
Well, i accept spoilage is a potential issue. All i can say, is i’ve been doing this for 25+ years and only one box was spoiled. That was the whole box - every bottle had a mouldy smell. No other bottles have gone off.
now we are getting some better wines in box, and TWS can source whatever style/value the members would buy, so we can change the perception that BiB is cheap and nasty. It is cheaper, and it can be better than many people think.
I’ll carry on doing it, and re-using my bottles
Also true 
, and guilty as charged.
I buy cases, but I have never bought a box. I suppose I just worry in case I get boxed in…
If doing this, is it necessary to use corks, or would a screw-top bottle work too?
What about wine in cans; these are lighter than glass and more easily recyclable than the bags in the boxes
Surely buying/drinking by the cask/barrel is the best way to help the environment 
Reading their website, BIB will also recycle the bags and taps for you. (you may have to pay for a special envelope of be a member of their subscription service, they’re a little more vague about that!).