Friday, 16th January 2009
Don’t buy wine with plastic stoppers or screw-tops, urges Scottish MEP
Plastic stoppers and metal screw-tops increasingly used for bottling wine are damaging the environment and threatening the future of Europe's ancient cork forests.
This was the message from Scottish Tory Euro MP Struan Stevenson who has launched a campaign to persuade consumers to buy wine bottled with real corks.
He said: "Cork oak forests cover vast tracks of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France and North Africa and are a natural carbon storehouse, removing 4.8m tonnes of C02 from the atmosphere every year.
“The cork stoppers produced in a sustainable way from these forests, without cutting down the trees, is under threat from the increasing use of plastic and metal stoppers on wine bottles.”
Mr Stevenson said that unlike natural cork, plastic and metal is not bio-degradable and ends up in landfill, causing cost and pollution.
Nor are they kind to wine. Bottles with plastic stoppers can only be stored for six months while the limit for bottles containing metal stoppers is one year.
He added: "The problem is that consumers in the UK often cannot tell whether the wine they purchase has a real cork stopper or not because of foil or plastic wrappers on the neck of the bottle.
“There should be clear labelling on all wine bottles to warn consumers of plastic or metal stoppers.”
“The public must vote with their feet and stop buying wine that uses plastic or metal instead of natural cork."
Mr Stevenson also called for a new policy in Europe, where owners of forests and peat bogs which act as a vital part of our global air-conditioning system, receive a subsidy for protecting and maintaining the ecosystem services these lands provide.
