Wine corks go green
EDWARDSVILLE — Going green is possible in nearly everything we do and everything we use. Even when drinking a favorite wine or champagne there’s an opportunity to play a part in saving the planet, beyond saving the bottle.
Who knew that itty-bitty corks aren’t just something to be tossed into the trash?
The truth is, most people probably don’t give corks a lot of thought except maybe as a collector’s item or a decorative addition to a home bar.
And for true wine enthusiasts, corks can add up. Even one a week for 52 weeks is a good-sized pile of corks in a year’s time. Double that and you have quite a haul. For retailers, restaurants and bars that pop any number of corks on a daily basis, the volume can be tremendous. Businesses or grocers that sponsor or hold events where wine is served, banquet centers where weddings and other occasions are celebrated — the list goes on and on, and corks can accumulate big time.
Cork Tree Creative, an Edwardsville public relations and marketing firm, came up with an idea to start people thinking about recycling corks and raising awareness of the company’s namesake, the cork oak tree, grown primarily in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
Cork Tree principals Laura Reed and Jan Carpenter wanted to institute an easy method of regional wine cork collection to help divert some of the 15 billion wine corks that currently end up in landfills, leading to the establishment of the St. Louis area’s first wine cork recycling program, “Rewind your Wine.”
“We’ve received calls from all over the country about the program,” Reed said. “As far as I know, there are only three organizations doing this in the United States. There’s one in California, one in Pennsylvania, and now we’re here for the Midwest region.”
Wine corks are natural, bio-degradable, renewable products that have the potential of being recycled into other usable materials, and Cork Tree has teamed up with Yemm & Hart Green Materials, a company based in Marquand, Mo., that gives the corks a second life as tiles for floors, walls and other or LEED-certified building products. (LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.)
While Yemm & Hart cannot use synthetic wine stoppers in the recycled tiles, they do receive some non-cork stoppers, which are donated to an area teacher’s recycling center, where children can use them for various projects.
Stephen W. Yemm, president at the recycling company, said the efforts made by those saving and recycling the corks helps the environment by keeping the corks out of the landfill and helps encourage the recycling of everything.
“The wine cork tiles we are developing from the corks will extend the life of the already harvested corks for decades as flooring and wall covering,” Yemm said. “We expect most users of the tiles to be aware and proud of the fact that using real cork helps to sustain the cork oak forests of the western Mediterranean. as long as the demand for real corks is maintained, the Cork Montados (cork forests) in that region are protected from development by the local governments, he said.
“If they weren’t protected, they would eventually succumb to human encroachment, the complex eco system would become threatened and the earth would lose some unique species of animals and plants,” he said. “The Cork Montados, I have been told, are second in importance to the Amazon rainforest for the atmosphere’s health.”
Rewind your Wine contributes to a greener lifestyle by simply encouraging people to become involved in recycling and supporting an effort to preserve an important part of the world.
“Even one cork helps in this effort,” Yemm said. “A parent recycling one cork can influence their children in yet unforeseen ways.”
Yemm & Hart became involved in cork recycling efforts in 2003 when they were planning a new home and office when cork was suggested for the flooring.
“I searched for post-consumer recycled cork tiles and found none in the U.S.,” Yemm said. “We had been in the business of converting milk jugs and detergent bottles into flat panels for commercial use since 1989, so we decided that we could do the conversion of corks, too. We’ve have been developing wine cork tiles ever since and are very close to the end product.”
A cork stopper’s original purpose is to help a vintage reach its peak. They have been used in this way for more than four centuries, a practice said to be set into motion by French monk Dom Perignon. though many trees have a layer of cork bark, the cork oak tree provides most of the world’s commercial cork (about 50 percent to 60 percent is used for wine corks) from trees grown primarily in the Mediterranean region where low rainfall, high humidity and plenty of sunshine provide optimum growing conditions.
A cork tree must be at least 25 years old before the first batch of cork bark can be stripped. the trees live to be more than 150 years old and bark can be re-harvested only about every nine years following the initial 25-year period.
Reed said that Erato on Main in Edwardsville and St. Louis-based Ionia Atlantic Imports are two early participants in the program who have helped pioneer the effort, along with Cork Tree Creative, to recycle corks, a practice that is quite common in Europe and Australia.
Cork Tree Creative picks up the corks at participating drop-off locations and transports them to Yemm & Hart for the recycling process. and while anyone can send their corks directly to Yemm & Hart, Cork Tree hopes to also reduce the carbon footprint created from the transportation of the corks by making large deliveries at one time. In addition, the Rewind your Wine initiative will hopefully, help make cork recycling as simple as recycling paper and plastics.
Metro East cork recycling drop-off locations currently include Crushed Grapes Wine & Spirits at 1500 Troy Road #A in Edwardsville; Erato on Main at 126 N. Main St. in Edwardsville, and Pere Marquette Lodge and Conference Center, Illinois Route 100, 13653 Lodge Blvd. in Grafton.
Julie Lochmann, director of sales at Pere Marquette Lodge, said as soon as she heard about Rewind your Wine, she knew it was a program that the lodge would want to participate in.
“We joined the initiative in may, and by November, we had hundreds of corks that were picked up by Cork Creative,” Lochmann said. “Before the program, we were like many organizations and were throwing the corks away. It’s great to find a way to recycle them.”
Pere Marquette houses a Mary Michelle Winery tasting room in the former Illini Lounge where corks can be dropped off. Wine tasting hours are from 4 to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 2 to 10 p.m. on weekends, but people are welcome to bring their corks into the lodge anytime, Lochmann said.
Additional partners in the program include Grapevine Wines, City Grocers LLC and Whole Foods-Galleria, all in St. Louis; Madinger Wines in Kirkwood and Robust Wines in Webster Groves. All participants are recognized as “Pioneers” in the Rewind your Wine initiative.
Wine retailers large and small, grocers, bars and restaurants throughout the Metro East and St. Louis area that would like to participate in the program may call Reed at (618) 656-7333. For more information, visit Cork Tree Creative at www.corktreecreative.com, Rewind your Wine at www.rewindyourwine.com or Yemm & Hart at www.yemmhart.com.
vbennington@sbcglobal.net
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