Petri Cellars, a historic winery located west of the town of Escalon, was purchased by Bronco Wine Company in 2003. Immediately, renovation of the winery into a 21st century modern processing facility began. The old redwood wine tanks were deconstructed and reused for remodeling other buildings. Many of the concrete tanks were demolished. In their place, more energy efficient, insulated, stainless steel tanks were installed along with a modern organic red grape processing plant.
The largest contributors of materials to the reuse portion of our program are grape skins, seeds, and stems (pomace) and spent diatomaceous earth. These waste materials are either employed in our vineyards as compost or delivered to entities that will use them to condition agricultural soils. These processes have resulted in our maintaining a 99 percentile average for diversion rates over the past four years. In 2018, Petri Cellars generated 60,507.9 tons of waste and of that recycled 60,483.16 tons of material. This is an effective diversion rate of 99.959%.
Petri utilizes the principle of “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle” as a standard for the program to be successful. Following such principle, Petri Winery earned TRUE Zero Waste Gold certification in 2017. All newly hired seasonal and full time employees attend safety training which includes our Zero Waste initiatives. We educate our contractors and subcontractors to manage their waste streams either through contract terms or recycling alongside our employees when onsite.
Items attributed to Petri Cellar’s Zero Waste success include:
- Continual training of recycling methods and establishing a recycling culture that employee’s embrace.
- Selecting partners in their supply chain with like goals
- Providing receptacles for all recyclable materials in offices, break areas and production floors
- Absolute support and commitment from ownership
- Constantly raising the bar for companywide recycling performance
In the spirit of giving back, a portion of Petri’s yearly recycling revenue is used to purchase gifts for the United States Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.