[...]Corkfinger – Amorim, ReCORK America and cork recycling | Dr Vino's wine blog[...]…

What great discussion your post has generated! I work with Nomacorc, the leading producer of alternative wine closures (we produce more than 2 billion closures each year globally).

We partnered with TerraCycle in January 2009 (you mentioned them in one of your comments above). TerraCycle is an eco-friendly company that collects pre- and post-consumer material nationally and “upcycles” it into unique home, office, and school products sold at major North American retailers including Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, The Home Depot, and Whole Foods.

Through our joint program, Nomacorc closures collected by TerraCycle nationwide will be collected and upcycled into consumer products.

http://nomacorc.com/news_article.php&id=51

The products TerraCycle has developed from reprocessed Nomacorc closures are recyclable and made via low energy consumption means.

Retailers around the country (including Spec’s in Texas and ABC in Florida) are collecting post-consumer use Nomacorc wine closures with bins at retail locations.

In addition to the Nomacorc closures collected in Spec’s and ABC locations, TerraCycle has 1,000 “brigades” across the United States that collect post-use synthetic wine closures.

Like you said in your earlier post, every wine closure collected and sent to TerraCycle adds $.02 in charitable giving to the retailer or brigade’s charity of choice. TerraCycle takes natural cork closures as well to make it as easy as possible for consumers.

It is also important to note that all Nomacorc products are 100% recyclable with LDPE food packaging (U.S. RIC 4). In addition, Nomacorc recycles all waste material from production and converts it into industrial products.

Last but not least: while it’s key that we all do our part to be efficient and environmentally conscious, and this is an interesting topic to explore, in reality the closure is a minimal part of the environmental impact of wine.

At Cork Re-Harvest we have developed a program where all cork collected at Whole Foods Markets and other collection centers across the US and Canada are backhauled by trucks already going to recycling centers. We are working with wine distributors who already make deliveries to these stores. We are also working on a delivery model that involves other partners that will keep the carbon footprint increase to almost zero. As the program expands we will implement this model in every region across North America.

The other aspect of our program is to help educate the public in the US about the potential devastation of the Mediterranean cork forests and to correct the misinformation about cork closures and the cork forests. The cork forests of the Mediterranean are a vital source of income for thousands of people and they support one of the world’s highest levels of forest biodiversity, including endemic plants and endangered species such as the Iberian Lynx, the Iberian Imperial Eagle, and the Barbary Deer (symbol of the Maghreb). The loss of these forests would have a devastating effect on out planets ecological health. As our website is under construction, for more information about the cork forests please go to http://www.rainforest-alliance.org and http://www.wwf.org

One aspect of this debate that often gets overlooked is the screw cap’s environmental issues. It takes 12 times the energy to make a screw cap than a natural cork. There are 24 times more greenhouse gasses released in making a screw cap than a natural cork. Also most recycling centers do not recycle screw caps due to the plastic sealer in the top. Not to mention the devastation Bauxite mining causes to the earth ecological balance and the enormous amounts of energy the aluminum industry uses (1% of all electricity generated in the world).

Thank you for your reply.

One point of clarification: I stated that wine bottle corks are “ripped from the bark of trees in Portugal” not that the bark was ripped from the trees.

Thank you for the update about ReCORK America. I’m at a loss as to why you didn’t provide that information when I originally inquired via email on 8/31. But I’m pleased to learn that you are, in fact, doing more than hoarding corks in a warehouse in Napa.

18 September 2009

Dr. V,

As a member of Amorim’s ReCORK America project team I would like to comment on your September 17 “Goldfinger” posting.

I take exception to your description of “ripping” the bark from the trees. Mature cork oaks are harvested approximately every 9 years for the life of the tree (175+ years). The removal process does not injure the tree and is done with surgical accuracy by very skilled craftsmen. And by the way, the trees are not cut down in the process.

I acknowledge that the ReCORK Web site needs updating. Here is some fresh information:

Since the program’s inception in 2007 we have collected approximately 3 million corks. Half of these corks were sent to Amorim’s reprocessing facility in Portugal to test the viability of remanufacturing in Europe. Because of carbon footprint issues and shipping costs, our conclusion was to find a home for future shipments here in North America. To that end, we recently shipped 9 tons of cork to a footwear manufacturer in Vancouver, B.C. We have also identified several additional recycling partners in the US.

In defense of Amorim’s “green record.” Amorim is the first cork manufacturer to go on record with a sustainability report. Their 2008 report was awarded top honors for environmental stewardship from CorporateRegister.com and Drinks Business, a major UK drinks trade publication.

A copy of Amorim’s 2008 Sustainability Report + a wealth of information on the company’s green initiatives, and cork in general, can be found at http://www.corkfacts.com.

We are proud of what we have accomplished at ReCORK America and encourage your readers to join us in our recycling effort.

Cheers,

Roger Archey

ReCORK America

http://www.recorkamerica.com

I just saw a news item that Annapolis’ Department of Neighborhood and Environmental Programs is collecting wine corks for recycling. The partner is a company called Terracycle that seems interesting even if they appear quite brand driven. Oh, and there are more things you can make from corks than simply cork boards!

http://terracycle.net/

They pay $0.02 a cork. So, literally, you can give them your two cents worth!

Randall did move to Stelvin but his 1996 Cigare was closed with a plastic plug and was badly oxidized in a relatively short time because of it.

As for cork’s problems, there is no doubt that the industry brought its problems on itself by ignoring TCA until alternate closures became a threat to its monopoly. I doubt cork will ever again have the market share it once had.

In any event, as a wine lover, I don’t care what the stopper is made out of as long as it works to protect the wine, does not add its own character and allows a gentle aging curve at temperatures that are also beneficial to wine.

A nice line of argumentation for cork manufacturers. Of course corks do have their problems too, such as premox and TCA, which is what gave the opening to screwcaps (Stelvin closures).

Btw, as a point of clarification, those are what Grahm replaced his corks after the ceremonial funeral(s). I asked him about his decision earlier this year and he still thinks it was the right way to go.

But I always thought that the real issue was the protection of the wine. If cork cannot show that it is a better protector, it will go the way of the dodo bird.

On the other hand, if any and all of the replacements for natural punched corks cannot show that they are better, they will go away.

We have already seen that the plastic plug stoppers have not lived up to their billing. How long ago was it that Randall Grahm held a wake to memorialize the death of the cork, declaring instead that the plastic plug was its replacement. A few years later, when all those wines with plastic plugs had oxidized prematurely, the wake itself turn out to be as incredibly premature as the death of his wines.

Still, for all that, I have never really understood why the cork industry has resorted to this argument when the real issue was the efficacy of cork. Go prove that premise boys and you win. Fail to prove it and you will fade away and your cork trees will get replaced with eucalyptus.

“Are all wine corks recyclable?
No. Not all wine corks can be recycled. Only corks made from the bark of a cork oak tree are recyclable at this time. Synthetic corks made from petroleum-based products and aluminum screwcap closures are not recyclable and generally find their way into landfill. It is because of the difficulty of recycling plastic and metal that we are limiting the program to natural cork only.”

We’re natural! We’re recyclable! Screwcaps bad! Corks good!

Jeez.