Cork Forest Conservation Alliance

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Don’t be a Cork Dork – Recycle

What do you do with that cork you just popped out of a wine bottle?  Most likely you throw it away (you certainly don’t sniff it).  Cork is a renewable crop; cork tree barks grow back nine years after harvest.  Why not keep the cycle going with used corks?   We all pop more than 13 billion corks every year.

Cork comes from Cork Oak trees, and Portugal is the largest producer of cork worldwide.  There’s the ongoing debate about cork being the best closure for wine bottles.  It gets points for being sustainable and biodegradable, and for allowing a little air into wine to help it age.  Downsides include cork taint,  trichloroanisole (TCA), and over time, cork can dry out and often crumbles when when you try to pull it out of an older bottle of wine.

You know you can recycle wine bottles (and if you don’t, Earth Day on April 22 is a good time to start).  You may not know that you can also recycle corks, but you can.  And I’m not talking about home crafting them into coasters or bulletin boards.Read more

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