Ever wonder what to do with the natural corks from your wine bottles, besides throw them in the trash? They are biodegradable, but that takes years in a landfill. There has to be a better way!
I was always curious myself. Whenever I would have a glass of wine or two or three (oh dear, now the bottle is empty!), I would always have a little bit of guilt inside me.
No, not because I drank all that wine, but because I didn’t know what to do with those darn corks! It was so frustrating to me. I love to recycle, upcycle or even downcycle. but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to do with them. So I Googled and searched the internet to find out what an “eco-friendly wine-drinking gal” like myself could do to avoid putting them in the trash!
Thanks, Google! Voila!!! ReCork and Yemm & Hart. These companies take recycling to the next level.
ReCork takes your corks and upcycles them into new creations such as shoes. “Your corks will be used to replace petroleum-based material in SOLE and other Re-Use Partners’ products and packaging, and extend the useful life of your wine corks.” How friggin’ neat is that? Pretty nifty, in my books!
And the kicker is, they pay for the shipping of quantities weighing 15 lb or more. I know, I know, 15 lb is a lot of cork, but everyone has friends, right? Collect all your corks and ship them together! All you have to do is pack your natural wine corks up in a box, request a prepaid packaging tag and head off to the post office to be part of the shoe-making magic! Or you can find a drop-off location in your area.
Here’s an interesting fact about the company: as of now, they have collected 16, 605,360 corks and planted 5,874 trees. Now that is impressive!
Yemm & Hart is another company that takes in your wine corks. They transform them into floor tiles. Yes, floor titles. I would love to get my hands on a cork floor, please. Wouldn’t it be a party for your feet? All you have to do is mail them your wine corks. You pay the shipping. However, they offer free samples of their tiles. That’s cool! I guess I could get my dream floor piece-by-piece.
If mailing out your corks is just too much work for you, compost the suckers. When I say compost, I don’t mean put them in the trash so they will decompose, silly! A home composter will isolate the C02 and make for some awesome soil!
Now, if you don’t mind, I am going to sit, relax and have a glass of guilt-free wine!
*I did not receive any compensation and was not asked in anyway by either company to write this blog post. This was all done by my own free will. However, if someone wants to send me a free floor or a nice bottle of vegan organic wine, I would not say no. 
environment, green, recycling, reusing, sustainability
I am the Good Girl Gone Green. Seeing garbage cans overflowing with recyclables breaks my heart.
My Mom and I have collected wine corks for over 10 years. She of course started before me since ten years ago I wasn’t legal drinking age. We knew that the time for them to degrade in the landfills was not worth while, so we kept them, in a big jar after cleaning them and hopefully one day we have enough to make a cork floor. We currently have over 200 wine corks, yep… that’s a lot of wine! Or we buy wines that use recyclable corks.
My Mom has always had the dream of having a cork floor, and my Dad never stopped her from keeping them. Amazingly enough, they look nice in the big vase she has them in and it always gets people asking.
Love the new site! Sorry took me so long to get over to it, but loving it!
Thanks for sharing Christine! That is a lot of wine and corks, YES! Maybe your mom can make a small cork matt out of them or just keep saving until either one of you can make a floor! And thank you for the kind words about my site and don’t apologize for not visiting earlier!
Hey Steph!
I only recently started to drink wine because I won a wine cooler and 30 bottles!! I keep the corks and plan on making some cork art with them at some point. I like the idea of seeing something on my wall that represents all the good times, great conversations, giggles, just the best memories for so many celebratory occasions. That is my focus with my corks, cork art.
Bark kisses!!!
xoxo
Patty
Patty, you make me smile and laugh all the time! But for sure, I would have thought you’d have more than 30! And that is a great idea to make cork art to remember or maybe not remember all the good times!
Thanks for bringing these two companies to our attention. Often there are solutions out there but we just don’t know they exist.
These days, of course, we’re seeing fewer and fewer real corks or no cork at all. Of course that may very well be the quality of wine I tend to drink…hmmm…
Another company that I’m pretty sure recycles corks is the maker of Lucky Charms. I can’t prove it, but I think they cut up corks and pass them off as “marshmallows” in their cereal…
Anyway, thanks again for an interesting and useful post.
You are so welcome Eric! Thanks for reading. LMAO about lucky charms, I agree, I am sure they recycle corks to make marshmallows!
I don’t drink, but there are a lot of ways to recycle the corks (and the wine bottles too). I sometimes add old wine bottle corks to the bottles I save for making my homemade body and massage oils – they add a nice touch to the finished product.
Here’s a cool post for the many uses for recycled cork from Handmadeology:
http://www.handmadeology.com/the-many-uses-for-recycled-cork-how-to-make-a-cork-wreath/
Peace.
That is a great way to reuse your wine bottles and corks, never thought of that! And at Christmas, on the Today Show, they showed their viewers how to make a “cork wreath,” very lovely idea and creative idea! Thanks Michelle for sharing.:)
Amazing Idea! I don’t drink much wine and none at all this moment due to pregnancy lol but my family loves their wine so I will have to pass these ideas on! Fantasitic. By the way… the site looks AMAZING! Wow!
Thanks! Yes, please pass on the wine cork idea! Thanks for reading, I appreciate it!
I’ve been saving wine corks for years! I even ask friends to kindly pass over their wine corks when they’re done with their wine!
I have used the corks for several different re-purposing projects. It’s reducing-reusing-recycling at its best! Several art pieces have come out of it as well as a cork board to post messages on. They’re really cool and have so much character!
Meant to tell you, CONGRATS on the blog, girlfriend! It’s awesome…just like you!! xo
Thanks Christine that is so nice of you! I am so happy that you hang on to your “corks” and not just throw them out! YAY!
The local wine shop inside the Metro grocery store has a box where you can drop your corks off for recycling. I just sort of assumed all the wine/LCBO stores had them. Of course I never actually remember to drop them off, I just have a giant dish of them collecting dust in my china cabinet. Which hubby teases me about.
I’m really curious about Mommy Matters comment about making a cork floor. You can do that with wine corks?? I’m not a big drinker, so I don’t think I’d ever collect enough personally… but that is such a VERY cool idea!
Thats so great that the LCBO recycles the corks! Oh and the second company that I mentioned, Yemm and Hart, make cork floors out of corks from wine! And it’s a super cool idea! Thanks for stopping by, Deanna!
Yeah I get recycling the cork into cork floors.. but an individual saving up enough to “make” a cork floor? I’m curious as hell. How does one do that?
I am not sure an actual individual can make a cork floor, but I could be wrong. I think the corks need to me send to the manufactures to be recycled first. I will definitely be asking Mommy Matters about that one!
I saw this article in the local paper over the weekend and thought of you: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Czech+cork+clad+house+draws+crowds+wine+making+town/4925785/story.html
It takes cork conserving to the extreme! The end effect is quite nice. The house is covered in a mosaic… of cork.
Thanks Amy! That is pretty interesting. If only I drank that much wine!
I think I might have 15 lbs of corks…scary!
LMAO! So you going to send them to be made into a floor?
Great ideas! I’m going to look up to see if there is a drop-off location in Cincinnati. I have been collecting our own corks and corks from my parents for the past year to make a cork mat for the basement. Good to know that I can compost them also
That is so great, Katie!