Wine from a can? A plastic bottle?

It has taken years to get people accustomed to drinking wine out of a box and from screw-top bottles. Well time keeps marching on and new, cheaper containers are the future. But not so fast. Treehugger.com is not sure this is a good move at all for the sake of the environment, and we know that it’s definitely not cool. From Treehugger:

But did we gain anything? If moving away from corks (which can be recycled) to screw-tops which cannot, and moving from glass to plastic (both of which can be recycled, but glass can be recycled indefinitely) did we really gain anything? While yes the PET can be recycled into clothing, park benches, toothbrushes and other materials, what is the end of life for these items? Are we really gaining by making more tshirts or would it be better to use glass and turn those glass bottles into more glass bottles? The PET bottles are shatterproof and lighterweight, which is better for shipping and transport, but is that enough savings to outweigh the fact that many bottles never get recycled and that we’re putting more plastic into the environment with these? According to Boisset, the PET bottles have a 50% smaller carbon footprint than a traditional bottle throughout its lifecycle from transport to use to recycling.