Victory Gin

Aluminium can refilling glass bottle / Source: Victory London Distillery

AluminiumBagasseCelluloseEuropeFlexi-HexFood & BeverageGlassHempPackagingPaper

3 MINUTE READ

Emma Grace Bailey

WHAT WE SAY:

Glass recycling is at the cornerstone of hospitality waste management, but while it’s a more effective system than plastic recycling, the cost, time and resources required have a mammoth impact on the planet. Victory London Distillery’s refill system makes perfect sense.

Why send an empty bottle of spirit to be recycled, only to be made back into a new spirit bottle, when you could refill it behind the bar? We all know refill is the answer to our single-use packaging problem, and this solution shows how granular refill needs to go. The future of happy hour cocktails lies here.

KEY FACTS:

London-based distillery Victory London is tackling the issue of hospitality single-use liquor bottles with the launch of refillable Glass bottles – negating both the financial and environmental cost of recycling.
Companies buy the bottle, and then refill it either with the brand’s returnable kegs, or its 700 millilitre recyclable Aluminium refill cans, which can be bought in bulk and used to refill behind the bar.
The brand’s kegs – known as KeyKegs – can refill a bottle of the brand's craft gin 28 times. KeyKegs can be sent back to Victory to be refilled and reused. The aluminium cans can be used in hospitality settings as well as in the home, and are a plastic-free evolution of the brand’s previous Eco-Refill Pouches.
The refillable liquor bottles feature a glass stopper and are made from at least 50% recycled green glass.

Close up of glass bottle / Source: Victory London Distillery

Glass bottle stopper / Source: Victory London Distillery

DIVE DEEPER:

Recycling empty glass bottles costs hospitality venues up to USD 125 a week, according to a 2011 National Restaurant Association survey. Victory London’s refillable glass bottles eradicate this cost, while also negating the need for more connected and efficient recycling infrastructure which is unlikely to appear anytime soon.
The locally made glass bottles are paired with a mono-material glass stopper, sealed with tamper-proof seals made from extruded Cellulose originating from wood pulp, derived from renewable resources.
The label is also designed for minimal impact, made from upcycled fibre stock. 95% of the label comes from Bagasse. The remaining 5% is made from Hemp and linen fibres, selected from annually renewable plants.
The Paper mill that produces the labels is elemental chlorine-free, meaning it uses chlorine dioxide to bleach paper instead of the chlorine gas bleaching method. Paper is also acid-free and pH-neutral, as well as being FSC-certified.
Glass bottles are delivered in Flexi-Hex, a strong, adaptable, paper-based protective packaging solution. The brand provides a reusable funnel with first purchase, made from 100% recycled calico and beeswax.

"We make spirits for people to drink, no shelf ornaments!"

Victory London Distillery

Key Design Considerations:

Regional variations

Are you designing for the US market? Current US federal law § 5301 does not allow liquor bottles to be refilled with distilled spirits after first use, meaning refill systems such as Victory’s would not be applicable. We’re keeping an eye on legislation change and will let you know when you’ve got the green light.

Go further with lightweighting

Victory’s new bottles claim to be lighter than their predecessor. Lightweight glass bottles reduce the carbon footprint of glass shipping, and innovations such as Allied Glass x Two Drifters have reduced the weight of spirit bottles by 30%. How can you reduce the thickness of glass bottles without affecting their fragility?

Efficient systems are key

How many spirits are you proposing for refill? Venues only have so much storage space at one time, so prioritise the most popular spirits and develop an efficient delivery and tracking system that allows venues access to new stock and collection services.