It's been hardly a decade since the long-maligned metal screw cap started appearing on quality wines, and during that short time, many wine enthusiasts have moved from snobbish rejection to closer analysis and on, for many, to enthusiastic acceptance of a wine bottle closure that cannot impart cork "taint." Then there was wine-in-a-box. The verdict remains out on this trend.

Now get ready for the next big thing! With consumers, manufacturers and governments world-wide looking much more closely at the "carbon footprint" of consumer goods in an age of environmental concerns and rising fuel costs, the glass wine bottle is coming under critical scrutiny.

"Glass is one of the heavier packaging materials, which has made wineries investigate alternatives," reporter Jo Burzynska wrote last month in The New Zealand Herald. Just as wine makers Down Under were first to embrace alternative closures, this same region - around the world from export markets in North America and Europe - may take the lead in ditching glass in favor of lightweight wine containers.

"Australian winery Wolf Blass has just released part of its range in plastic bottles in its local market, which it claims are 90 per cent lighter than standard glass and able to keep wine in good condition for a year due to new technology." Burzynska added, however, that the relatively short shelf life of wine in plastic bottles rules it out for wine that are cellar worthy.

The new plastic bottles are made from the recycable PET plastic and are made to look the same and hold the same amount as glass bottles - only they are an eighth of the weight.

Looking at the advantages on offer, it starts to make a lot of sense. According to the UK Government’s packaging agency, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, reducing the weight of all glass wine bottles to the lightest available would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 90,000 tons for that market alone. Less energy is used to make and transport them, and you can happily breath a sigh of relief when you drop one and it just bounces off the floor, as opposed to smashing into smithereens. In addition to this, they are perfect for those summer festivals, barbecues and so on.

Until the technology is improved, the one overwhelming con in the plastic bottle trend is shelf life. But if you’re thinking green - think recyclable plastic.