It was developed by Martin Myerscough, the technology director of the company, who came up with the concept after talking to the manager of his local tip, who told him that air-filled plastic bottles are the biggest problem he had to deal with. Myerscough started with milk bottles — creating a design that crushes flat and decomposes, leaving nothing but a small residue from the waterproof bag that contains the milk (which is recyclable if facilities are available locally).

Now, he’s turned to reinventing the wine bottle. Each paper bottle contains the same type of bag found in boxed wine so that the wine is kept fresh. The carbon footprint is cut to 10 percent of that of glass bottle but the big bonus is in terms of weight — each bottle weighs just 55g, whereas a regular glass bottle weighs more like 500g, which slashes transport costs.

It remains to be seen whether shoppers go for it, and — at least at first — hardcore oenophiles are likely to be unimpressed by the bag approach, but Asda’s promised to put milk cartons on shelves in 2012, so wine won’t like be far behind. Myerscough’s strategy for that is to approach wine manufacturers — he wants to license the patented technology to vineyards so that the wine doesn’t need to be shipped to a bottling plant first.

from:    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/16/paper-wine-bottle