Wild Glass

Wild Glass Rude collection / Source: Estal

AsiaBeautyEuropeFood & BeverageFood GradeGlassInertNorth AmericaOceaniaOxygen Barrier PackagingSouth AmericaTransparentWild Glass

WHAT WE SAY:

Just as there is nothing identical in nature, every bottle made with Wild Glass is unique.

This is a perfect example of the new aesthetic brands must embrace – a new aspirational normal. Many glass manufacturers are producing recycled content, but Wild Glass is taking it to another level, celebrating the imperfections and working with premium brands to define a new visual luxury. While glass collection is rising, actual recycling is still lagging behind. Designers have the power to catalyse more demand by elevating imperfections to our future perfection.

Wild Glass

WHAT IS WILD GLASS?

Estal’s Wild Glass is a post-consumer recycled Glass solution for the food, beverage and beauty markets.
It embraces the aesthetic imperfections of recycled glass for a natural, organic appearance, complete with bubbles, indentations and uneven hues, creating a new design language.
Wild Glass bottles are available in two colours, with collections dedicated to the spirits and wine markets.
Available in 21 countries, the Wild Glass range from Estal is made with up to 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) glass, and comes in 10 spirit and wine bottle shapes.
Because of its ‘flawed is beautiful’ aesthetic, Wild Glass sees less than 10% of bottles discarded during the manufacturing process, compared to 25% in the traditional recycled glass manufacturing process.

KEY PROPERTIES:

Food Grade
Inert
Oxygen Barrier
Transparent

INDUSTRY:

Beauty
Food & Beverage
Packaging

AVAILABILITY:

Commercially Available

DIVE DEEPER:

Glass is often positioned as a sustainable alternative material, due to its infinite recyclability and non-toxic nature. According to data from Close the Glass Loop, collection of glass containers for recycling hit 78% in the EU in 2021.
Wild Glass is made with 95% PCR glass and 5% additives, and was launched in 2019. The company only discards bottles with functional defects from the manufacturing process, not aesthetic ones, creating a collection of glass bottles for food, beverage and beauty applications that embrace the natural beauty of recycled glass.
The brand does not stabilise the colour of bottles, ensuring limited time, money and resources are wasted at the beginning of the manufacturing process, when bottles would traditionally be discarded if not an exact colour.
Wild Glass is available in the Rude Collection for spirits and the Prima Collection for wines. Rude comprises six bottle options, while Prima offers four. Both collections come in two colours: Wild Flint and Wild Dark. The colours are derived from the glass used in the recycling process, rather than from added colorants.
The Wild Glass wine bottles are purposefully designed to be asymmetric, enabling Estal to reduce the weight of bottles but not the size. It claims that wine bottles are reduced in weight by 60 grams.
Any glass that does not qualify as Wild Glass is coined Quasi-Wild glass and is sold to brands looking to decorate its bottles.
Less fuel is needed to melt recycled glass compared to the creation of virgin glass, reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the product lifecycle. Research from glass maker Ardagh found that 580 kilograms of CO2 is saved per ton of glass recycled.
The Wild Glass range has won two LuxePack awards - on launch in 2019 and for its Rude spirit collection in 2021. It is currently being used by Laithwaites, Ruska Martin, Selva Gin, Kwilu Rum and Snake Oil.

Ruska Martin using Prima bottle collection for the Make a Mark project / Source: Make a Mark

Ambrosia Premium Italian Gin in Wild Glass bottle / Source: Estal

KEY FACTS:

95%

Wild Glass is made with 95% PCR glass and 5% additives.

580kg

580 kilograms of CO2 is saved per ton of glass recycled.

60g

Wild Glass wine bottles are reduced in weight by 60 grams.

Key Questions to Ask:

How will your consumer respond to the ‘imperfect’ aesthetic, something that is at odds with what we are all used to?

Consider how to communicate the ‘imperfections’ to brands and consumers, highlighting how this new aesthetic aligns with a growing desire for natural and organic products.

Can you use Wild Glass for permanent and refillable packaging solutions?

LCAs of glass bottles often show higher CO2 footprints, due to the increased transport weight. This makes Estal’s focus on spirit and fragrance bottles understandable, given their relatively long usage cycles (in a domestic setting). Consider the way your product will be consumed when choosing its packaging.

Which end of the market are you designing for?

Wild Glass is aligned with premium market prices, especially the sparkling wine collection. It is currently best suited for small batch, artisan producers at the premium end of the market or limited edition collections.

What volumes do you need?

Estal sources its PCR from Northern Italy, where Wild Glass is also manufactured. Wild Glass is only produced twice a year at present, with Estal working on a third production cycle. This is due to the limited availability of PCR glass and thus limits the scalability of Wild Glass to SMEs.

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Wild Glass

WHAT WE SAY:

Just as there is nothing identical in nature, every bottle made with Wild Glass is unique.

WHAT IS WILD GLASS?

KEY PROPERTIES:

INDUSTRY:

AVAILABILITY:

Commercially Available

DIVE DEEPER:

Glass is often positioned as a sustainable alternative material, due to its infinite recyclability and non-toxic nature. According to data from Close the Glass Loop, collection of glass containers for recycling hit 78% in the EU in 2021.

The brand does not stabilise the colour of bottles, ensuring limited time, money and resources are wasted at the beginning of the manufacturing process, when bottles would traditionally be discarded if not an exact colour.

The Wild Glass wine bottles are purposefully designed to be asymmetric, enabling Estal to reduce the weight of bottles but not the size. It claims that wine bottles are reduced in weight by 60 grams.

Any glass that does not qualify as Wild Glass is coined Quasi-Wild glass and is sold to brands looking to decorate its bottles.

Less fuel is needed to melt recycled glass compared to the creation of virgin glass, reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the product lifecycle. Research from glass maker Ardagh found that 580 kilograms of CO2 is saved per ton of glass recycled.

The Wild Glass range has won two LuxePack awards - on launch in 2019 and for its Rude spirit collection in 2021. It is currently being used by Laithwaites, Ruska Martin, Selva Gin, Kwilu Rum and Snake Oil.

KEY FACTS:

95%

580kg

60g

Key Questions to Ask:

How will your consumer respond to the ‘imperfect’ aesthetic, something that is at odds with what we are all used to?

Can you use Wild Glass for permanent and refillable packaging solutions?

Which end of the market are you designing for?

What volumes do you need?

MEET THE MAKERS:

Estal

KEY PRODUCTS

LOCATION
Europe

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Wild Glass

WHAT WE SAY:

Just as there is nothing identical in nature, every bottle made with Wild Glass is unique.

WHAT IS WILD GLASS?

KEY PROPERTIES:

INDUSTRY:

AVAILABILITY:

Commercially Available

DIVE DEEPER:

Glass is often positioned as a sustainable alternative material, due to its infinite recyclability and non-toxic nature. According to data from Close the Glass Loop, collection of glass containers for recycling hit 78% in the EU in 2021.

The brand does not stabilise the colour of bottles, ensuring limited time, money and resources are wasted at the beginning of the manufacturing process, when bottles would traditionally be discarded if not an exact colour.

The Wild Glass wine bottles are purposefully designed to be asymmetric, enabling Estal to reduce the weight of bottles but not the size. It claims that wine bottles are reduced in weight by 60 grams.

Any glass that does not qualify as Wild Glass is coined Quasi-Wild glass and is sold to brands looking to decorate its bottles.

Less fuel is needed to melt recycled glass compared to the creation of virgin glass, reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the product lifecycle. Research from glass maker Ardagh found that 580 kilograms of CO2 is saved per ton of glass recycled.

The Wild Glass range has won two LuxePack awards - on launch in 2019 and for its Rude spirit collection in 2021. It is currently being used by Laithwaites, Ruska Martin, Selva Gin, Kwilu Rum and Snake Oil.

KEY FACTS:

95%

580kg

60g

Key Questions to Ask:

How will your consumer respond to the ‘imperfect’ aesthetic, something that is at odds with what we are all used to?

Can you use Wild Glass for permanent and refillable packaging solutions?

Which end of the market are you designing for?

What volumes do you need?

MEET THE MAKERS:

Estal

KEY PRODUCTS

LOCATION Europe

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LOCATION
Europe