Grape pomace (upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/)
After the wine has been manufactured and introduced to the market, the last but also very important activity is recycling, which help complete the entire maturity wine production cycle. Recycling plays a very indispensable role in the entire wine production chain, in terms of waste reduction, resources saving and environment protecting.
During the wine manufacturing process, there are some unavoidable waste appears alone with the grape harvesting and waste water treatment activities. According to the academic article of Composting of Residuals Production in the Catalan Wine Industry, it states that through the investigation from a well known wine production company—-Miguel Torres S.A, the author reported that there are two main solid wastes generated form this wine industry: stalk (from grape harvesting process) and wine sludge (come from the biological waste water treatment plant). During the entire wine production process, remarkable amount of unavoidable waste are generated and 80% of them are organic wastes or by-products like grape peels and seeds.For those organic wastes, the vineyard has already came up with well-established treatment to reduce the wastes of grape pomace. In addition, Co-composting is applied to transform these two critical wastes of stalk and wine sludge into useful sanitized fertilizer.
Co-composting of stalk and wine sludge which generated in the wine production process is considered as a sustainable waste management strategy because it changes the wastes materials into sanitized fertilizer which can be applied in the vineyard, closing the organic matter cycle.
Products made by pomace (winefolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/grape-pomace-biodegradable-containers-OSU-winery-waste.jpg)
In conclusion, manage the recycling activity of wine production ensured the raw materials that used to producing wine finally return back to the resources pool and turned into something useful and valuable. Wine recycling process provided a sustainable ecological local environment by reduce the waste, save the energy and resources and limit the pollution. In addition, the recycling process also contributed the wine production industry by reducing cost of wastes dispose, cost of energy used and expense on raw materials. Significant amount of benefits can reached from this recycle process and besides risk like break the environmental law can be prevented.
Gea, Teresa, et al. “Composting Of Residuals Produced In The Catalan Wine Industry.” Compost Science & Utilization 13.3 (2005): 168-174. Environment Complete. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.