ReCork finds new uses for natural wine stoppers

About 36 billion bottles of wine are produced annually around the world according to Wine Spectator, and 13 billion of these are sealed shut with cork. In the U.S., approximately 65 percent of wine bottles are plugged with natural cork stoppers, which come from cork oak trees in the Mediterranean. The 400-year-old corking practice includes stripping bark from a cork oak, Quercus suber, and allowing the tree to heal for 10 years before the bark is again stripped. Most cork oak groves are in Portugal, Spain and Italy, some 6.7 million acres worth, providing jobs and income for 100,000 people, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Since cork isn’t considered a recyclable item like paper or plastic, most used ones are disposed of through landfills. However, a West-Coast-based company now offers free recycling, free of charge to a growing number of wine shops, stores and restaurants through the Pacific Northwest. ReCork began as a grassroots effort to recycle cork and soon became a subsidiary of Portugal-based Amorim. ReCork collection boxes or bags are offered free of charge. Shipping costs are covered by ReCork from local retail shops, restaurants and bars to distribution centers including one in Great Falls, Mont. Vino per tutti wine specialty shop in Bozeman, Mont. has a three-foot-tall ReCork box prominently displayed where customers can drop off used corks as they shop. Vino per tutti is one of six drop-off locations in the Big Sky state. There are 72 drop-off locations in Washington and seven in Idaho. “It doesn’t smell, and I have a nose like a bloodhound,” notes shopkeeper Caleigh Searle of the 10 pounds of used cork currently in the collection bin. “If you stuck you nose deep into the box, you might find a slight vinegar odor, but it’s very faint.” That’s part of the magic of cork: it’s impermeable, lightweight, buoyant and sustainable. According to ReCork’s program director Matt Hughes, the cork is repurposed into new products from flooring and fly rods to boating products and SOLE footwear. “Cork recycling began as a grassroots effort in the Napa and Sonoma, Calif. area,” says Hughes. “ReCork was founded in 2008 because used cork was going to waste. Tragic. So we created this program and in our first year, we collected 1 million corks.” That figure has now reached nearly 37 million corks collected and nearly 8,000 cork trees planted as part of ReCork’s sustainability program. Because of food-safety laws, the corks cannot be reused in bottles; however, cork for flooring and building products is a popular upcycle. The SOLE flipflops and footwear insoles have become a growing business. A couple of drop-off locations in Spokane include Manito Tap House and Two Cooks Winery in Spokane Valley. Various bars and restaurants state-wide are drop-off locations or recycling partners. The used stoppers currently wind up in storage, as Hughes notes, because when SOLE footware took over ReCork in 2009, the Vancouver, B.C.-based manufacturer initiated a relationship with the Chinese to grind the cork, mold it into footbeds, shape and rebond into blocks for shoe manufacturing. “We’ve broken a lot of ground with the Chinese government,” says Hughes. “ReCork and SOLE are pioneers in helping promote recycling among the Chinese by helping the Chinese government understand the importance and feasibility of recycling.” The entire program has a negative-carbon imprint which works when a consumer drops off corks at a collection box. Then the retailer ships to the distribution center. After corks are prepared and packaged in containers, the used corks are sent to the West Coast where they are loaded onto cargo ships which have as of late, been traveling to the U.S. fully loaded with goods from Asia but virtually empty leaving ports of Seattle, Portland and others. Once in China, the grinding to manufacturing occurs. “The life cycle from used cork to new shoes will probably take about a year,” says Hughes. SOLE footwear products are available at outdoor retailers such as R.E.I. and running specialty shops and shoe stores. He says that other companies are exploring additional uses for recycled cork such as purses, belts and cork fabrics. While recycling for the purpose of recycling is obvious, reusing natural cork is a sustainable practice according to the World Wildlife Fund. “Cork oak landscapes are one of the best examples of balanced conservation and development anywhere in the world,” said the WWF website. “They also play a key role in ecological processes such as water retention, soil conservation, and carbon storage.” The Iberian Peninsula is suffering from the creeping desertification yet the cork-oak forests are not. A cork-oak savanna, a montado, has some of the richest biological diversity in the Mediterranean. According to the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 100 songbird species breed in the montados, and 160 other birds occur among the two-centuries-old groves. The Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used cork stoppers for wine and olive oil. In the 1600s, Dom Pérignon found that wooden stoppers didn’t work well on his champagnes, so he developed the methode champenoise using cork stoppers. The practice emerged as best practice for the spirits industry. Cork certainly has its detractors. Occasionally, cork has caused what’s known as cork taint or trichloroanisole, which damages the wine. Vintners have fine-tuned methodology to lessen the occurrence of cork taint. Other stoppers, synthetic and screw-cap closures emerged as a cork alternative about 15 years ago. A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that “carbon dioxide emissions—a key factor in global warming—resulting from the life cycle of a screw cap are 24 times higher than a natural cork stopper, while a plastic stopper is responsible for 10 times more CO2 than a natural cork.” So what can the casual wine consumer do to help prevent desertification, assist with biodiversity in the Mediterranean, lessen waste and assist in stablizing an industry that employs some 100,000 people? When dining, request only wines closed with cork, and when shopping, purchase wines sealed with cork. Then consider ReCorking!