Wednesday, June 10, 2009

New Uses For Wine Corks



It’s commonplace to recycle glass, aluminum cans and certain plastics. But that still leaves a lot of other materials that end up in the trash. Thankfully, there are companies like Trenton, NJ-based Terracycle Inc. that find a new life for materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. It has partnered with Zebulon, N.C.-based Nomacorc, a manufacturer of plastic wine corks, to create products out of the company’s used corks. Nomacorc, in turn, has signed on Spec's Wines, Spirits and Finer Foods, a leading independent liquor retailer in South Texas, to be the first retail participant in the TerraCycle program to collect post-consumer-use wine corks that will be used to make wine cork boards. The 18x18-inch cork boards will be sold by OfficeMax stores nationwide, as well as Spec's stores. They are also available on Terracycle’s Web site for $19.99.
TerraCycle also has 1,000 "brigades" across the United States that collect post-use wine corks. The brigades are made up of nonprofit organizations including churches and charities. In return for collecting and shipping closures to TerraCycle for processing, the organizations receive money to support their activities and programs.
As TerraCycle's wine closure manufacturer partner, Nomacorc is leading the effort to find additional retail and winery sponsors for the cork recycling program. To date, Nomacorc has donated more than 2 million wine closures for turning into cork boards.
If you don’t live near a Spec’s Wines, Spirits and Finer Foods, you still can be part of the wine cork recycling effort by mailing your corks to:

TerraCycle Cork Brigade
121 New York Ave.
Trenton, NJ 08638

Up to 10 corks use two stamps per envelope; up to 30 corks use four stamps.
So before you toss that wine cork in the trash, consider spending up to $1.68 in postage to send them to Terracycle, which will give them another life.

12 comments:

Cookie said...

THat is so neat! I saw a friend use wine corks to make a plate that you can rest a pot on. I'm sure those have a special name, but it's slipped my mind now and I'm strating to babble....

hokgardner said...

My girls' school collects a bunch of items for recycling - old crocs, batteries, granola bar wrappers, and corks. The number of corks they manage to collect every month seems to indicate that the parents at our school are heavy drinkers.

Happy Go Jessica said...

I live within a 1/2 hour of Zebulon, NC and did not know of them. Thanks for sharing!!

bernthis said...

Amazing idea. It's unbelievable the things they can make out of "trash".

betty said...

I enjoyed hearing/seeing what they can do with wine corks; I'll have to consider saving them/sending them to this company!

thanks for sharing the info

betty

Wayfaring Wanderer said...

We've been saving our up to do a 'cork' board.

the mama bird diaries said...

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

Kathleen said...

Very cool.

Tina said...

i never even thought about using corks for things like that. cool!

MaryAnn Ashley said...

Great idea... when I saw them all, I was shocked...

Kathleen W. said...

I love Terracycle, and they seem to do so many cool things. I love those wine corkboards, and have been saving up corks to make one one of these days.

Janice said...

I'm finally going to send my corks to terracycle ... think it's OK to just send them without being part of an official "brigade"?