I admit it. We save wine corks. They’re a reminder of good wines and good company. We hate to throw them away, but really, how many trivets can you make?

Enter an innovative wine cork recycling project by Yemm & Hart. Send your wine corks to their ongoing collection as they experiment with converting them into cork floor tiles. This would extend the life of this natural resource for decades more, while keeping the material out of our landfills. Yemm & Hart currently recycles tires, plastic detergent bottles, and PVC plastics into commercial and residential materials.

Producing cork for wine bottles is already a sustainable practice. The bark is harvested in a way similar to sheering a sheep, allowing the trees to thrive. Cork oak forests provide a diverse ecosystem for plants and animals as well as serving as a barrier to the encroachment of the Sahara desert into Europe. All parts of the cork are used, so nothing is wasted until it gets to our table.

Plastic corks and screw top caps are threatening the cork producers and forests. So, drink wine stoppered with real corks, and then ship them off. Yemm & Hart accepts natural corks from anyone, consumer or retailer.

Wine Cork Recycling
Yemm & Hart Ltd
610 South Chamber Dr
Fredericktown MO 63645

Thanks to Kirsten Flynn of Sustainable Home for bringing the program to my notice, and The Green Guide post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 7:10 am and is filed under Real Estate, Green Homes, Home Remodeling, Recycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.