Don’t Throw Those Wine Corks Away, Upcycle Them!

You like to drink the occasional bottle of vino, and if you are like my wife as opposed to me, you like the stuff that comes in a glass bottle rather than a can. (I kid, do they even make wine in a can?) Nothing wrong with that as long as you’re responsible, right? You can recycle the glass bottle, which is infinitely recyclable, but what about that darn cork? As long as it’s natural, it’ll biodegrade in a landfill over time, but there’s no benefit to that, and it certainly doesn’t help the depletion of cork forests. If only there were a way to recycle it, or better yet, upcycle it.

Well hold on to your hats dear vinophile, because your prayers have been answered. Thanks to companies like Recork, the answer to your problems lies only a post office or drop off box away. Recork will take back your natural corks, and make them into new shoe treads for a company called Sole. How cool is that? You can send your corks in (they’ll send you a free mailing label for 15 lbs or more), or better yet, you can find a drop off in your area and turn them in as you use them. According to their website, to date, they have upcycled over 8 million corks and planted over 2000 trees (they do that too).

Of course Recork isn’t the only company doing this, a simple google search comes up with more than a few sites that turn your wine stoppers into everything from shoes to flooring and beyond. Regardless of who you use, the important thing is to keep those corks out of the landfill and put them to some good use.

Dave

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Alan L.

3:50PM PDT on May 13, 2013

Cool ideas...

May 13
send a green star

Tammy K.

9:50AM PDT on May 10, 2013

Great news! Thanks!

May 10
send a green star

Pam W.

5:49AM PDT on May 10, 2013

Nice, thanks.

Helen W.

2:51AM PDT on May 10, 2013

yay :)

Klaus P.

12:59AM PST on Jan 22, 2013

Cork is in short supply; hence we have aluminium caps on most vino bottles these days. I do recycle my cork stoppers, not for art work or cork boards, but give them to collection centres run by charity. They sell them to industry to make gaskets for car engines or new cork stoppers for Port bottles, recognisable by their plastic tops. As for the aluminium seals they can be recycled as well with soda or beer cans, not to forget the bottle which is forever recyclable. Nothing gets wasted in my place.