Cork is a 100% recyclable natural material, it comes from the cork oak tree. To be more precise, from the bark of this tree, which is used to create wine stoppers, insulating material or shoe soles.
The first cork stoppers date back to the year 1600 and were used in bottles of sparkling wine. Hence, the first good wines in history are considered to date back to the 17th century. The global cork business has grown to produce around 20 billion cork stoppers a year.
Unfortunately, tons of bottle stoppers are wasted every year, because recycled cork cannot be used to make new ones. At Jean Leon, we make sure that the entire winemaking process in the winery is as sustainable as possible.
That is why we would like to propose you to help us to take care of the environment by adopting an eco-responsible attitude and to contribute to the creation of new objects.
Here we suggest 4 ideas to give a new life to wine corks.
Card holder
Every time we organize a dinner with friends or family we try to innovate in the presentation of the table. The details are very important, that is why we want to recommend a trick to hold the cards on the tables.
There are two versions to make this easy support. Both, for the first and the second option, we will need the following materials: a small pot, a strainer, a cutter and cards.
We will boil water in the pot, place the strainer and as soon as the water is boiling, place the stoppers of the wine bottles in the strainer. We proceed to cover the pot and leave it for about 2-3 minutes for the cork to soften. Once this step is done, we will be able to cut the cork easily without breaking it. We will make a cut in a spine of the cork, not too deep to nail the side of the card and thus hold it vertically.
To make the second proposal, we will have to do the same process of boiling the wine stopper, we will cut the cork in half vertically, thus getting two pieces. On the rounded back make a not very deep cut. And we will have the support for the cards.
Then it is up to each person to leave the cork as it is or decorate or paint over the cork to give it a more personal touch.
Christmas tree decorations with cork stoppers
If you liked the first idea, now that Christmas is coming, you can encourage the family to renovate the Christmas tree ornaments.
It’s time to bring out your creative side by creating reindeer, angels, Christmas candles, snowmen… The idea is to use cork as the main element for the construction of your garland, to decorate it. So, look at home for any element that can be used to decorate your creation.
Memory Stick
Your memory stick protector is broken, and you’re thinking of throwing it all away? Don’t spend money on another USB or leave it without any protection. We propose you to create your protector with a cork stopper for wine.
Take a wine stopper that you have at home, do the process of boiling the cork in water that we have explained in the previous proposal, with a cutter cut in half the stopper, make a hole the size of the memory stick. Once we have the perfect hole, add a few drops of glue and insert the USB.
Recycled Cork
We know that not all readers of this blog like to do crafts or have time for it. If you want to help us change the world and recycle wine corks, we propose the following:
Recycled Cork is a company dedicated to recycling and collecting wine corks to give them different uses. The company has several collaborators who are in charge of giving a second life to this material. Through this link you can see by provinces, the different cork collection points.
Also, if you plan to come to visit our winery and spend a great morning, you can take advantage and collect all the cork stoppers you have at home and leave them at the collection point we have at the Jean Leon’s Visitor Center.
These are the 4 ideas that we suggest to give a second use to this 100% sustainable material. As you can see, there are many more solutions to take care of the environment and be a little more eco-responsible. What do you do to recycle wine corks?
