Winery launches cork recycling program

Do you, like me, have a bag of wine corks that you don’t know what to do with? They’re great for art projects, or for kids on Halloween who want to achieve a hobo's beard-stubble by rubbing charred cork on their cheeks.

But now you can recycle those wine corks, and promote sustainable forest practices at the same time.

Willamette Valley Vineyards has launched a cork recycling program in eleven Whole Foods grocery stores in Oregon and Washington. “Cork ReHarvest” is a test program, and if it is successful it will be expanded nationally.

Partnering with WVV and Whole Foods in this cork recycling program are Western Pulp Products and The Rainforest Alliance.

The program promotes sustainable cork production and the use of cork-stoppered wine over the use of screw-caps and other closures. Cork production is a sustainable trade because cork can be stripped from the cork oak trees for use without damaging the tree. Cork trees can live an average of 170 to 250 years.

On the WVV website, founder Jim Bernau says that the increased use of screw caps in the wine industry is endangering Mediterranean cork forests. His winery has the distinction of being the first to have earned Forest Stewardship Council certification for using cork stoppers harvested responsibly from forestlands certified by the FSC. The vineyard was also awarded FSC Chain of Custody certification by the Rainforest Alliance.

The Rainforest Alliance holds that using cork stoppers in wine bottles is essential to protect the environment, as more wineries turn to plastic stoppers and aluminum screw caps to address concerns about tainting, oxidation and leakage. The Alliance says that unless the commercial value of cork stoppers is maintained, there is a risk that cork oak landscapes will face an economic crisis, loss of biodiversity and an accelerated rate of desertification.

According to the Alliance, cork oak landscapes cover about 2.7 million hectares of land (almost 7 million acres) in Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia and France. More than half the cork consumed worldwide is produced in the Iberian Peninsula, according to the group, and those cork landscapes not only provide jobs for tens of thousands of people but are also home to endangered species and one of the last natural forest ecosystems in Western Europe.

So go ahead, uncork that bottle of wine, and remember to recycle the cork later. Somewhere in the Mediterranean a tree will thank you.