On wine corks

On wine corks

16 Apr 2007

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

Not that I am a big-drinking old lady or anything, but I find myself with a lot of wine corks that I can't find a recycling outlet for. All of my retired farmer friends have made all the cork trivets the neighborhood can stand. What to do with our corks, please?

Marianne de Sobrino
Eureka, Calif.

Dearest Marianne,

Here I go, focusing on the big stuff again. I found your letter charming, and it does bring up a three R's question along the lines of, should we drink less wine in order to Reduce? Is this our moral obligation as environmentalists? I think it cannot be. Renouncing wine would set us against millennia of human culture and history, in effect divorcing ourselves from our ancestors, when the very thing we wish to do is place environmental stewardship within the context of moral human culture.

Photo: iStockphoto

Phew, settled that conundrum. Now to the second R: Reusing corks in the form of the infamous hideous trivet, coffee-table top, bulletin board, corn-skewer pincushion, rocking-chair stop, slingshot ammunition, wall-art bumper, potted-plant aerator, child craft project, and buoyant key chain seem to be over in your neighborhood. I got all these ideas off the internet, let me assure you. Except the slingshot one. I also found photos of giant wreaths made from corks. Yuck!

As for the third R, Recycling: A brief reminder that cork wine stoppers can be shredded a little and composted or used for mulch. They are an organic material, aka oak-tree bark, and could take the place of bark mulch if you use it -- or any brown, carbonaceous material in your compost pile. That is the only free way to recycle cork in the United States at this time.

In the antipodes, you would not have this dilemma. Australia has cork-recycling schemes, and so does New Zealand. In Canada, the Girl Guides (who I assume are the Canuck Girl Scouts) have cork drives wherein they collect satchels and satchels of corks and sell them to a cork manufacturing plant. It's a fundraiser for the Girl Guides, and based on the little I read seems a healthier fundraiser for all concerned than selling ... oh, wait, I'm not meant to talk about health. Anyway, sounds good.

Ask Umbra continues below

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Here in the United States, there is a Missouri company experimenting with cork recycling. Yemm and Hart Green Materials needs 1,200 pounds of cork to process its first batch, which it will make into blocks of cork and slice into thin sheets for resale. So, Marianne, what you can do for your neighborhood is collect everyone's corks and ship them to Yemm and Hart. Not only will this be a great community service, but you will then be put on their list of donors, which you can see on their website. They're tracking the poundage donated, and at last count they had 1,194 pounds. Note: the company will accept wine and champagne corks, but not those newfangled plastic stoppers.

I foresee that someone will write in asking whether plastic stoppers, corks, or screw tops are the best for the environment, and maybe I'll answer that question someday if the letter is charming enough. But right now all I will say on that point is enjoy your wine, and recycle the glass bottle.

Oenophily,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (9 comments)

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Another Solution!

Just don't support wineries who use corks! Many wineries, even some of the very best, use screwtops on their wines. Better yet, there are those with 100% recyclable synthetic corks that actually improve the quality of the wine, as there is a 0% chance of cork taint. Wineries like Thumbprint Cellars also refuse to use foils on the bottles, as this is purely waste - the need for foil seals disappeared when we stopped shipping wine on rat-infested ocean liners (the metal seals were to prevent the critters from chewing through the corks).

Forget the cork - it's just a bad, bad packaging call.

by Tod at 10:01 AM on 16 Apr 2007

Cork

Wine corks make for excellent kindling.

by Zot at 11:18 AM on 16 Apr 2007

Use real cork, not synthetic!

We ought to be supporting wineries and others who use real cork! Using cork rather than synthetic stoppers helps prevent the Iberian lynx from becoming extinct. The lynx is indigenous only to cork oak forests in Spain and Portugal from which cork is obtained, so the use of synthetic stoppers, which has been increasing in recent years because is it no doubt cheaper, "provides disincentive for the animals' natural habitat to be preserved."

"In 2002, the Iberian lynx became the first wild cat to be placed on the Red List of Threatened Species maintained by The World Conservation Union
(WCU). There are only about 150 members of the species and fewer than 30 females capable
of reproduction currently alive. If the lynx does
become extinct, it will be the first cat to die out since the sabre-toothed tiger disappeared 10,000years ago, said former WCU Cat Specialist Group Chairman Peter Jackson.
(Environmental new service, 23 June 2003)

Propaganda by the manufacturers of
screw tops and plastic corks causes many people to think that cork stoppers are bad for the
environment when in fact the opposite is true.
Cork oak savannahs not only protect biodiversity and wildlife that is on the brink of extinction, they are reportedly "a hedge against desertification caused by global warming as the Sahara creeps into Europe."

And how do you recycle plastic corks? I live where recycling is common practice, but they only take plastic bottles, tubs and some bags, not plastic corks, so off they go to the landfill. Real cork is sustainable; synthetic and screw caps are not. And you can help the Iberian Lynx.

by estark at 11:50 AM on 16 Apr 2007

More why use corks

In addition to Iberian Lynx territory, the Cork Savana habitat is very important to birds in Spain and Portugal. Audubon Magazine had a recent article that talked about the whole issue and came down very strongly on the importance of continuing use of real cork - a sustainable natural product - for wine.

I had previously been a proponent of plastic corks for the reason stated by Tod with regard to wine spoiled by bad corks. But upon reading the Audubon article, which explains how the industry produces corks that don't fail, I have seen the light! I will encourage my home winemaking co-operative to continue using high quality real corks to support the birds (and other fauna and flora) of the Cork Savana. Barbara

Barbara

by BMendenhall at 12:31 PM on 16 Apr 2007

wine container itself

has anyone done work on the new-fangled aseptic wine containers and bags? The companies that use these claim that they "save packaging," but I can't see how that would be, since aseptic container recycling is hardly universal. I guess it is because they contain more wine than a bottle, generally??

I CAN see how the shipping costs/energy would be less, since these containers weigh far less than a bottle does.

Still, I can't see how the material itself is inherently superior to glass, which as we all know is so easily recycled. Thoughts?

by sarahbei at 1:15 PM on 16 Apr 2007

whoohoo for natural cork

natural cork can be sustainably harvested and then composted... seems like a nice loop to me, if only we could get it transported via solar powered boat! dripping a little wax on the end creates a good seal so the wine doesn't spoil (can beeswax be composted? I assume yes...)

and by the way, making wine yourself is easy (way simpler than making beer), with big potential environmental benefits:

only drive once or twice to get a year's worth of wine... (we pick up fruit "seconds" at the local farmer's market)
use local produce (here in michigan, we use apples, peaches, pears and cherries...)
reuse same bottles each year (can't reuse corks unfortunately....)
additionally, you can use the larger wine bottles to cut down on how much cork you use

seriously, making wine is easy and a great thing to bring to potlucks!!! try it!

by blacksheep at 4:17 PM on 16 Apr 2007

but cork is inferior

All tests show that natural cork is the worst possible closure for wine. It satisfies 'purists' but not those who are after quality. Imagine paying $100 for a bottle of wine and having it tainted (approx. 6% of all wines with corks suffer from taint - a failure rate that would put any other product manufacturer out of business)

by Tod at 7:11 PM on 16 Apr 2007

as for saving the lynx through consumption

that's a ridiculous idea! Consumption doesn't save anything. I'm so tired of people believing they can 'do good' through buying products. Ugh.

Recyclable plastic corks can be recycled anywhere plastic bottles can be recycled. However, I'm sure there are types that are not (check before buying - as you'll have to do with Savannah cork - how does one know if one is buying lynx-friendly cork, by the way?)

Either way, at the end of the day, the amount of water used in the wine industry and the amount of pesticides employed make wine a dubious industry to support in this time of crisis. There are, of course, wineries who are extremely dedicated to environmental protection (Preston, Medlock-Ames, for example), but they are quite rare and make up less than .00001 percent of annual U.S. sales.

by Tod at 7:16 PM on 16 Apr 2007

Let's not get Corky

Any synthetic product, especially petroleum-based products, are short-term solutions at best. The entire cycle of cork, a natural material, is much more sustainable for the planet and requires us to pay attention to tightly woven fabric of the life web.

As for recycling options, I would add the use of ground cork for raising orchards. A company in California claims it is the best material for orchards is used wine corks.

Earth Pope

by earthpope at 7:23 AM on 18 Apr 2007

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