Recycle Your Wine Corks
Posted on February 29, 2008 by
Kir asked about ways to reuse wine corks and wine bottles yesterday, so today we’ll revisit this tip about corks, and tomorrow we’ll talk about bottles.
I save corks. We don’t drink a lot of wine, but when we do, I feel bad throwing out the cork, so I toss it in the junk drawer.
The junk drawer collection came in handy last year when my husband was building a bike. He capped his handlebars with two champagne corks.
My in-laws have a wood-framed trivet made from corks (much like this one). A friend collects them in an elegant glass fishbowl to display as table art.
I have visions of the crafting I will do once I collect enough to make something.
But while I’d only need 8 for this simple trivet kit, I’d need a bunch for this bulletin board, even more for this wreath, and tons for a dining room baseboard.
Since I’m not sure I have the patience to collect enough corks for a big project, and it’s highly likely the junk drawer will be re-purposed in my spring cleaning, I was thrilled to come across Robin Shreeves’s post on cork at A Little Greener Everyday. She has some great info on where cork comes from, and why it’s a (slowly) renewable resource that should not be wasted. She also has suggestions for donating corks. So, stop throwing out your corks and put them to good use.
It would take more than a few, but cork would make great insulation or sound baffling. I bet if we had cork walls and cielings, we wouldn’t be able to hear the dogs upstairs. And then I would be happy.
Start drinking.
I put a bunch of my corks in a huge vase and then put eucalyptus leaves in there, which would otherwise not stand up as straight without the corks.
If you REALLY like wine, you can always do this:
http://www.corkboat.com/
I mail them back to Yemm and Hart, a company that repurposes the cork on large scale.
http://www.yemmhart.com/news+/winecorkrecycling.htm
[...] I already told you months ago about the importance of that little issue in the bottle post.) Allie gave some great suggestions in her recycling tips section about what to do with your hole plugs. [...]
[...] Monday – Recycle Your Wine Corks [...]
Wow – thanks for touching on this topic!!! I’m going to look into making that Cork Boat.