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Wine Cork Recycling
Yemm & Hart Ltd
425 North Chamber Dr
Fredericktown  MO  63645

Please don't send plastic wine stoppers and other non-cork materials.

Yemm & Hart has determined that the most sustaining type of product is a flat tile. We will produce 36" square tiles that resemble the image at the left in 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" thicknesses. They will be sanded on one side and ready to be adhered to a floor, wall or other substrate. As the development of this product proceeds, high quality material becomes available for samples. The cork sheet is cut to size, labeled and boxed. Yemm & Hart intends that everyone who has contributed corks to this product development, will receive a box of Wine Cork Tile samples, if they want it. Every contributor since 1/1/2004 has been recorded, based upon the return address provided - sometimes these are illegible or non-existent. Contributors through 2007 have been contacted via post card to verify their address and interest in receiving samples. Samples were sent to those that responded. If you were part of this group and did not get your samples, please contact Yemm & Hart. Address and interest verification post cards for cork contributions made in 2008 will be mailed out in early 2010. Sample kits for Wine Cork Tiles are automatically sent out to material product inquiries from the A & D community.

A typical wine cork weighs approximately 0.12 ozs and champagne corks weigh approximately 0.32 ozs. We see many more wine corks and will use that in our estimates. One ton (2000 Lbs) takes about 266,667 corks. All corks received are unpacked and sorted into pure cork and non-cork material. The non-cork material is donated to an area teacher's recycling center, so kids get a chance to be creative with it. This is an expensive manual process that adds value to the collected corks  The pure cork is then weighed and recorded by the sender's name.    

Collection Aid - For the convenience of cork collectors - click here to download, print and distribute a brochure or flyer as needed -

When sales are sufficient enough to fund it, wine corks can be paid for. Yemm & Hart believes, that this sustainable and increasingly rare material, will eventually cease to be discarded because there is no where for it to go. If you have questions, please contact us through this web site by clicking or by any of the above contact methods.

The Latest - Yemm & Hart Wine Cork Recycling is now in what may be the final development stage in creating a self-sustaining business that sources post-consumer wine cork stoppers and extends their life as tiles, primarily for use in for flooring, walls and other products. Quality product manufacture has proven possible in some test applications. Full size tiles have been sent out and the Wine Cork Tile product has been installed as a veneer, a wall covering and as flooring. As with any high quality product that contains post-consumer feed stock, there are unique processing challenges that must be overcome. For the Wine Cork Tiles, some of the challenges that have been overcome are: the determination of a repeatable ratio of whole corks to granulated cork. Another is the cork granule size; if it is too fine, the binder will not mix; too course and the visibility of the whole corks is lost. Keeping process equipment perfectly clean is the current obstacle to be overcome.

Cork Procurement - As a collaborative effort, Wine Cork Recycling has been a gratifying success. There are more new contributors each day and many repeat contributors. Many, if not most, simply want to recycle everything they can and this program offers the opportunity to recycle corks. Each contributor has been willing to pay the shipping cost to send their corks to the Yemm & Hart refinement center. This collaboration has helped with the cost of development for the Wine Cork Tile product. There has been enough material to conduct process experiments, that often require hundreds of pounds or thousands of corks at a time. Indications are, that there will to be enough contributed cork material for a beginning inventory balance. Yet, a commercially viable and sustainable product cannot rely on contributions alone. Yemm & Hart therefore, has conceived a plan, in which wine corks can be purchased from a greater segment of the wine drinking public to motivate more incoming availability. This is just a plan at this point and corks are not being purchased at this time. Here is a link to the Wine Cork Purchasing plan that is pending.

The Wine & Cork Connection
When people drink wine,
They are celebrating life,
They are celebrating their life or
The life of family and friends,
They are celebrating the life
Of the vine and the grape,
The skilled hands of the vintner.
When the wine is all gone
There often remains at the table,
A small reminder of life.
It’s the wine cork stopper.
The centuries old solution
To preserve the special taste
Of wine stored in stone.

Why? that little cork is bark.
Bark from a tree, a mighty tree.
A tree that lives
In just a few places,
On our planet Earth.
A tree that is endangered.
If the use of wine corks declines,
The magnificent cork oak
Is threatened with being cut down,
To make more living space for the
Coastal loving people.
Once a cork tree is gone,
It is rarely replanted
Because it takes generations to grow
From seedling to cork bark.

When people save their corks,
They are saving some of this life.
They are saying that they want it to continue.
It surely must have a longer useful life,
People want to believe,
When the wine corks are transformed
Into something all may use and see,
Awareness is renewed
About the mighty cork oak tree.
And drinking that wine
With a real cork stopper
Becomes a cause
For even more celebration.
Drinking wine is a celebration of life.

"I want these corks to be put to good use.  They are a natural resource that should not just be dumped into a land fill. - Kudos to you and your firm for being innovative with a common "throw-away" - Becky 3/7/07

"We are happy to find a use for the corks that represent years enjoying wine" - Kevin and Linda, Terre Haute IN 11/19/06

"Just a note of interest - My father worked for a major city restaurant for 30 years collecting wine corks. He wanted to make a model of a giraffe or a small boat but never got around to it. We ended up donating the truckload to the Du Page Children's Museum. We are delighted to see you are working with this valuable resource and would like to spread the word. Many Thanks" - Naperville, Illinois

"My daughter's school, a green school, made the floor out of cork in an area to be used for reading on the floor." - Mettawa, Illinois

"I have a sister-in-law who wires the wine corks together and creates hotpads. They work great". - Lake Sherwood, Missouri

http://www.jelinek.com/
http://www.corkfacts.com/nchoice.htm
http://greenyes.grrn.org/2004/05/msg00078.html     c1
http://www.guidesqld.org/about/corks.htm    
http://www.harpers-wine.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=802   
http://www.guidesaus.org.au/Visitors/corks.htm   
http://www.corkmasters.com/index.php?article=46&layout=4&visual=1 
http://www.drvino.com/   

The scale used in measuring contributed cork and non-cork w/0.001 Lbs accuracy.

Sorted pure wine corks with all contamination removed.

Approximately 600 Lbs of pure wine corks ready for shipping.

May 14, 2007 1st Test Block - Wine Corks surrounded by granulated cork.

May 16, 2007 2nd Test Block - Wine Corks surrounded by granulated cork.

May 17, 2007 3rd Test Block - Wine Corks surrounded by granulated cork.

May 17, 2007 4th Test Block - Wine Corks surrounded by granulated cork and black rubber.