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USA recycling of Wine and
Champagne cork stoppers since January 1, 2004 |
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Send your wine and Champagne cork stoppers
prepaid (paid by sender) to Yemm & Hart via UPS or USPS:
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 is
still collecting wine cork stoppers
with the goal of converting them into a useful, self-sustaining product - to extend the
useful life of this natural resource for decades and to raise awareness
of the cork oak tree and its eco-system. This is a collaborative effort
of Yemm & Hart and the environmental minded, wine drinking public. At the end of
October 2009, approximately
9,508.98 Lbs
have been received. Some of these corks have gone into industrial size experimentation,
as the development of a sustainable product continues. This new product
is called:

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. |
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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.
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Urgent - Did you know that the Cork
Montados, the cork oak savannahs, are
the continuation of an ancient practice and multi-dimensional use of
land around the Mediterranean Sea? The Cork Montados actually protect
the biodiversity and certain wildlife that is endangered or on the brink
of extinction and are a hedge against desertification caused by global
warming as the Sahara Desert creeps into Europe. Together, we can make
cork recycling part of the cause to preserve the Cork Montados. It is
important that people not only recycle their corks but make sure that
they are not synthetic to begin with. Real cork is an organically sustainable
practice;
synthetic and screw caps are not. You can help the
Cork Montados by
the choice you make when buying your wine. |
Links to Participating Wine Cork
Recyclers:
http://www.twiddy.com/green/#cork
http://www.corktreecreative.com |
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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. |
Some of the Many Comments we have
received:
"The cork tree (alcornoque in Spanish) is such a magical tree that if
you have ever slept in a forest dominated by this species you'll never
again throw away the cork after you finish a bottle of wine! The amount
of species (birds, mammals, reptiles...) that the cork tree supports is
enormous and they all add to the mystical experience of sleeping in one
of these forests. . . . Many thanks. Cheers, Montserrat" 3/15/2008
"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 |
Media Attention:
Midwest Living - October 2009 by Matt McGuire
Co-Op America Quarterly - March 2008
St Louis Post Dispatch - January 22, 2005
World Wildlife Fund Report - October 3, 2006 -
www.wwf.fr/content/download/1060/5243/version/1/file/Recyclage_liege.pdf
Real Simple - November 2006 -
www.realsimple.com
Conscious Business - November 22, 2006 -
consciousbusiness.blogspot.com/2006/11/freecycle-meets-free-enterprise.html
Indianapolis Dine - January 2007 -
www.indianapolisdine.com
APCOR - October 2006 -
www.realcorkusa.com/03_apcor_frames/apcor_newsletter.html
Kansas City Star - Date deep in the cork files
Dallas Morning News - Date deep in the cork files
Chicago Tribune - Date deep in the cork files |
Recommended Reading about Cork -
http://www.suber.org
http://audubonmagazine.org/features0701/habitat.html
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cork_rev12_print.pdf
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2006/11/put_a_cork_in_i.html
http://www.alternet.org/story/12915/
www.realcorkusa.com/
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/news.cfm?id=cork_stoppers
http://www.willamettevalleyvineyards.com/?s=fsc
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2007/04/16/corks/index.html
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/
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Images

Inbound
packages containing wine cork contributions.

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. |
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