Upcycling with Wine Barrels

by Gretchen Roberts, Posted Jan 17th 2009 @ 2:01PM

I'm one of those geeky gardener-cooks who tries hard to close the loop: I grow veggies and herbs, compost the scraps, and throw it back into the garden to make even better veggies and herbs. But thus far I haven't taken the final step--harvesting rainwater from the roof--because I've never found a rain barrrel I liked enough.

Now a company called TerraCycle has partnered with wineries in Napa, including Kendall-Jackson, to make rain barrels out of their used oak wine casks. According to TerraCycle, once casks have outlived their use in the winery, they're typically burned--not the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of them.

Hence the concept of "upcycling," or finding a new use for formerly non-recyclable materials. And when the new product is pretty, well, I'm a sucker! Find the rain barrels at Sam's Club and Home Depot for $149 each.

Filed Under: Raves & Reviews, Drink Recipes, New Products
Tags: america, kendall-jackson, napa, rain barrel, RainBarrel, upcycling, west coast, wine, wine barrel, WineBarrel

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-17-2009 @2:38PM jsled said... If they were just burning them to dispose of them, why aren't they like $14.90 instead of $149? :p

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1-17-2009 @10:25PM Gretchen said... That is fantastic!

and jsled? shipping, after market additions (i.e. those spigots and such) and some profit for the people doing the work....
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1-17-2009 @10:43PM Big John said... "Some" profit? That's an insane markup. Spigot and a little bit of work isn't worth $150.

Also, I really can't stand the term "upcycling". It's recycling folks, you're reusing a material outside its original use. "Upcycling" just sounds way too hippy lovefest for my tastes.
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1-18-2009 @5:57PM Rt said... Wow! This is the first I have heard of a self-admitted 'rain barrel snob'.

Gretchen, it's what the market will bear. jsled was closer to right - maybe $50. You are paying thru the nose.

Some of us make more money than others - much more money. Some of them are wine swilling, weekend, treehuggers.

You may hate me if you wish, but that doesn't diminish the accuracy of my words.
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1-18-2009 @8:49PM Kristen said... These are much prettier than so many of the boring, plastic ones I keep finding. I don't care what I have in the backyard, but I'm pretty picky about what I want out front -- this would fit in perfectly. And from the prices I've been finding, $150 isn't so bad, especially if it's going somewhere visible.
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1-19-2009 @10:07AM Gretchen Roberts said... Rt--

Ouch! That hurt. "Wine-swilling, weekend tree-hugger"? You'd be surprised at the cost of most composting and "green" stuff. $100 for a recycled plastic compost bin? And yet, when we priced out the materials to make our own, they were comparable, and in the long run much more cost-effective than buying compost from the store.

Here's an ugly plastic rain barrel from the Home Depot, the kind I had in mind when I said I haven't found a really pretty one yet, and the price is pretty similar: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&productId=100655070&navFlow=3&keyword=rain+barrel&langId=-1&searchRedirect=rain+barrel&storeId=10051&endecaDataBean=com.homedepot.sa.el.wc.catalog.beans.EndecaDataBean%401e88281b&ddkey=Search

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