What to do with wine corks?

Wine Corks are fun like wine itself! Corks are made with the bark of the cork oak, more often than not grown in Portugal, where the dry, arid weather is perfect for these impressive trees to grow.

Cork producers wait up to thirty years to harvest a cork oak for the first time, and once they remove the tree’s spongy bark, they wait nine more years to harvest it again! That’s what we call patience. And don’t worry; the trees suffer no damage during the process. Once the cork bark is harvested, it’s pressed and processed before being cut into wine corks and other products made of cork.

But not all wine corks are created equal, many inexpensive bottles of wine are capped with plastic corks, which have fewer uses in artsy projects.
Other corks are made with cork composite. Producers grind lesser-quality cork and glue the bits together for a cheap bottle stopper that’s not as nice as a 100% cork stopper.

So, what to do with wine corks? After all, even if you only enjoy a couple of wine bottles every now and then, you’ll find yourself with a surplus of corks in no time. Here are a few options:

1. corks are super versatile, if you’re all about arts and crafts, there are many interesting ideas with corks that make for extraordinary weekend projects. Browse for DIY wine cork ideas on Google and discover endless possibilities!
2. Recycling, you can also recycle plastic corks like natural corks with the help of @terracycle (check out their Instagram handle in your respective country), here in Australia is: @terracycleaus
3. Turn them into garden mulch just make sure that your corks are natural.
4. Try your hand at composting them. Put them in a compost bin but check first with your local council before attempting to compost them.

Click here to check out more ideas on the Instagram post comment box, and/or share with us yours!

Wishing you a not corked wine day!