From water to wine

While the bottled water industry is being besieged by environmental groups with its use of plastic bottles, the plastic industry, meanwhile, is finding a miraculous demand coming from the wine market.

Several wineries across the globe are switching some of their wines' bottle packaging from glass to PET (polyethylene terephthalate) to save transportation and packaging costs. Innovative PET wine bottles such as that of plastic producer Constar International, are now said to be shatterproof and oxygen-proof, which protects the flavor, aroma, and color of the wine inside the bottle.

Philadelphia-based Constar recently teamed up with French winery Boisset Family Estates, which is now packaging its "green" Beaujolais Nouveau wine with Constar's PET bottles. Boisset expects the retail price of the plastic bottled wine to be $12.99 compared to $13.99-$14.99 Beaujolais Nouveaus in traditional glass bottles.

Last year, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury started selling its plastic bottled wines, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and an Australian Rosé, as well as a Chardonnay and Cabernet Shiraz from Wolf Blass, one of Australia's biggest exporters of wine.