A grassroots coalition of North Bay wineries and businesses has built what’s aiming toward a closed-loop recycling system for one of the wine industry’s most stubborn waste streams: plastic stretch film.
The North Bay Zero Waste Collective has grown from informal industry conversations at the Napa RISE climate action conference in 2023 into a regional network that aggregates, processes and remanufactures used film into new packaging.
The effort now includes more than 100 wineries and businesses across Napa and Sonoma counties, according to program partners. Outreach at that and follow-up events by Stephanie Barger of the GBCI’s TRUE zero waste certification program helped catalyze early participation that evolved into today’s cooperative…