Nothing is thrown away from the wood, not even a small cork, let's see why.

In the world of circular economy wood recycled has its honorable place, contributing to the preservation of our forests, the reduction of CO2 and large-scale social operations.

If until recently a stopper, whether it was made of cork, plastic or metal, was an object considered negligible due to its weight and its size, so much so that it was generally thrown away, however, today, it has obtained due respect as the numbers it represents are quite remarkable.

The recycling of cork stoppers is an activity of primary importance, as it completes the glass bottle supply chain, allowing the complete recycling of the wine packaging, starting the two products for full and important recycling.

But how does the recycling of cork?

There can be many ways to recover cork stoppers, but we would like to tell the one undertaken by Carlos Veloso of the Amorin group , which has decided to create not only a virtuous cork recycling circuit, but an eco-social operation, involving many non-profit organizations that work in the collection of cork stoppers.

This project, called Ethical, has as its objective not only the collection of the product aimed at its recycling, but also the remuneration of the non-profit organization for each ton of cork stoppers delivered.

The goal is the territorial ramification of the collection through the non-profit organizations, which today are already 45, making it possible to collect about 30 million bottle caps, which will fuel another project called Suber.

Suber uses the “grained” (ground) cork to create design objects which, when combined with wood, steel and glass, they bring furnishing objects of outstanding quality and beauty into our homes.

The Suber project manages, as Carlos Veloso says, to combine environmental sustainability, waste collection, social justice , donation to charity, economic prosperity, creating an inspirational project that also generates culture.

The objects are made by mixing the grain of cork stoppers with natural resins, making seats, tables, lamps and many other products.

What other applications does recycled cork have?

We can count many and varied uses of recycled cork, as it is a product that has excellent qualities, among others, of thermal and acoustic insulation .

The main uses are:

• manufacture of cork granules intended for the insulation of buildings for filling

• manufacture of rigid slabs for thermo-acoustic insulation of walls and attics

• manufacture of cork slabs for flooring

• creation of aesthetic panels in cork

• production of soles for footwear

• creation of thermal insulation for the aeronautical and aerospace industry

• creation of decorations

• creation of objects for internal design

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.