This week, at Honig, we have joined forces and have initiated another effort that relates to sustainability. Amorim & Irmãos of Portugal is the world’s largest producer of natural cork wine closures (over 3 billion annually) and their U.S. sales offices, Amorim Cork America and Portocork America, have instituted a pilot program in California and the Pacific North West to recycle natural cork wine closures. This program is called ReCORK America and is focused on obtaining used and excess corks from winery tasting rooms, bottling lines, laboratories, restaurants, wine consumers, etc.
Natural cork is a perfect choice for recycling. It’s 100% natural, biodegradable and renewable. There is absolutely no reason natural wine corks should end up as landfill, when recycled cork can be converted into a variety of new products. Because of natural cork’s ability to retain carbon dioxide (CO2) from its inception as a wine cork through its reuse as a recycled cork product, it is a perfect example of sustainable packaging. No other wine closure can make this claim.
ReCORK America is a non for profit organization. When they receive the corks, they send them to a number of places. Sometimes they send them to Portugal to be reused. Other times they send them to the Midwest (mainly to Michigan and Wisconsin) to manufacture fishing poles, flooring tiles, building insulation, automotive gaskets, craft materials, soil conditioner and sports equipment.
To make this program work we need corks! Just so you get a sense of scale, it takes approximately 100,000 sparkling wine corks or nearly 300,000 wine corks to yield a ton of cork. So start saving your corks now. The company’s website has a number of drop-off locations listed, and we are one of them. So come enjoy a glass of wine and drop off your used corks. Please be aware that this program is exclusive to natural cork and does not include plastic or metal closures. So pop a bottle, drink, enjoy, and give us the corks so we can take care of the rest! Also, ReCORK America is always looking for new ideas for recycling the corks, so if you have any suggestions, please email them to me.
For more information, you can also visit: http://www.recorkamerica.com/index.html
Corks can even be baby chew toys!