No, I didn’t count them — but these collected wine corks were really starting to take up too much space in my apartment. I was collecting them in individual wine glasses — and running out of wine glasses –
So today they’ll be mailed off to the Terracycle Cork Brigade, to become mats and other upcycled products that’ll hopefully not be too fugly.
There are, of course, other ways to upcycle corks — covered in my Recycling for winos post. My sister’s way’s illustrated below. We are, as you may’ve guessed, very different people.
What do you do with your own corks?
Earlier:
>> Oh the things you can recycle
>> Revolution in a Bottle — Pot-inspired eco-capitalism
Photos top to bottom: Siel; Terracycle, yoelknits
Inriguing! I wish we could do this in Sweden too. I don’t drink wine (I’m a teetotaller) but if I did I would mourn over all this perfectly good cork going into waste – or burned as it is here in Uppsala. There is a golden rim to the cloud though, the heat from burning waste is used for heating Uppsala’s houses in the winter so it wouldn’t be wasted for nothing.
Rosengeranium (Indoor Gardener)’s last blog post..Little things for Earth Month
Comment by Rosengeranium (Indoor Gardener) — April 14, 2009 @ 10:55 am
Crafting or mulching are obviously better choices – as you pointed out in recycling for winos. Shipping a package of cork to NJ will create a carbon footprint of ~50lbs of CO2. (Rough math here: http://www.filetransferisgreen.org/index.php/latest-articles/52-file-transfer-vs-overnight-shipping-which-is-greener)
If you have to recycle them “out of house”, so to speak, you might be better of returning them to your local Whole Foods (they supposedly have cork recycling: http://planettrash.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/consumers-can-now-recycle-wine-corks/)
At least they can ship them out in bulk.
Or, even better, find a local winery and just return them on your next visit. (Now I just have to find a winery close to L.A. ;)
Which makes an interesting point – recycling and CO2 reduction are mutually exclusive. Reducing consumption might be a better idea (in general. I’d rather not fly on vacation, and sip a lot of wine in exchange ;)
Comment by Rachel Blum — April 14, 2009 @ 11:02 am
I’m with you on the mulching, but the prob. with crafting is that usually, you’re crafting crap you don’t need (and often just don’t look good). I think my sis’ lil boat thing’s cute, for ex — but wtf am I gonna do with it after I play with it once? :P
I’m also a bit unclear — Why would you return the corks to a local winery?
Anyway, totally agreed that recycling’s def. the bottom rung of the reduce, reuse, recycle triumverate. Recycling’s certainly better than nothing, but it isn’t guilt free –
Comment by Siel — April 14, 2009 @ 11:51 am
You could cut them and attach them to bottom of items as protectors (like what people do with sheets of cork and drink coasters, for example). You can also cut off thin slices and attach them to the back of hanging pictures to protect the walls from sharp corners.
They also can be good for storing sharp objects, like sewing needles, xacto blades, etc.
I personally don’t have many corks, but when I do I give them to my pets (they are rodents), but birds will also enjoy them as toys.
Have you tried freecycling them before sending them off? Some teachers might appreciate a large batch of corks like that for art projects.
Comment by M — April 14, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
You would return the corks to a winery that has a recycling program – see the link I added. (It’s about Whole Foods & a Winery recycling, sorry. I wasn’t clear there)
As for the crafting, it’s more about having fun with stuff you already have than about making useful items. Although M does have a bunch of good suggestions.
I.e. instead of going to the movies, build stick figures from tooth picks/corks and re-enact your favorite movie. (Bonus points if you make it a stop motion video. It’s on the list of things I really want to do ;)
Comment by Rachel Blum — April 14, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
M — Good idea re: donating the corks for school crafts projects. I’ll do that next time — tho I’m hoping I won’t be collecting the corks as quickly –
Rachel — Let’s just say that reenacting fave movies with corks falls rather low on my list of desires :)
Comment by Siel — April 14, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
I use ours as mulch in our potted plants.
Comment by Steph — April 15, 2009 @ 8:41 am
What about the plastic corks? Or do you specifically avoid wine with plastic corks?
Comment by Siel — April 16, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
What a coincidence as I read this post our radio station BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans’s show , he had a feature on what to do with used corks from wine bottles.
One of the replies was to use them as a mulch to keep weeds down in container or box gardens.
Seems you have beaten us to it.
Comment by Colin — July 28, 2009 @ 12:55 pm
What an excellent idea! I actually have a really neat trivet that my mother gave me that’s made of used wine corks. I never know what to do with the old corks. They usually sit in random drawers until I eventually just toss them out…
Kate´s last blog ..Sarah Palin’s Keynote Speech at Wine Wholesalers Expo
Comment by Kate — April 10, 2010 @ 1:31 pm
There’s now an additional option for wine cork recycling! An email I got from Whole Foods earlier this month:
“Whole Foods Market has partnered with Cork ReHarvest to implement a company-wide cork recycling program so that shoppers can recycle their natural wine corks. Recycling helps to reduce demand placed on cork plantations while maintaining the delicate ecosystem of the Mediterranean forests and helps thousands of producers to maintain a sustainable income to support their families.”
Comment by Siel — April 14, 2010 @ 2:02 pm