A couple months ago I mentioned here that I had visited Vetropack in St Prex, as part of a magazine assignment. Since the article had not yet appeared I couldn’t say too much, but seeing it in print last week reminded me of how wonderful the tour of the glass factory was.

The giant furnaces, now fired by gas instead of oil, no longer pollute my village with their dark smoke. The heat of these 1500 degree behemoths is extraordinary on a winter’s day and it gave me pause to think that for over 100 years the families in my village have toiled to make wine bottles.

My favourite moment was watching the red-hot liquid glass drop from high up, into bottle moulds made of iron, and seeing them emerge as bottles that cool down to green within seconds.

Photographer Hans-Peter Siffert, whose photos are reproduced here, and I were shown the old building next to the Catholic church in St Prex. This is the community hall the founder built for his workers, part of efforts to reduce alcoholism among labourers of the period. The walls are covered in giant murals reminiscent of the larger than life Communist art of the 1930s, glorifying hard work.

If I came away with one new conviction, it is that heavy bottles of wine used to market top-end products are unnecessary and environmentally unfriendly, although of course Vetropack didn’t say that. And if one older conviction was reinforced, it was that separating the colours of glass when we recycle is worth the trouble because less energy is used to make the new bottles.