ShareThisSAN FRANCISCO -- It's hard to imagine itty-bitty wine corks making much of a contribution to the world's mass of trash. But Roger Archey is heading a new effort to recycle wine corks -- and he's already collected more than 300,000 of them.Archey is running ReCork America, a recycling program created by Amorim, a Portuguese company that manufactures a quarter of the world's 13 billion wine corks. With help from volunteers, including some local schools, he's gotten recycling commitments from a host of local restaurants and wineries, and set up several cork drop-off sites.Now the question is: What to do with that growing pile of corks?Amorim could recycle them into flooring, Ping-Pong paddles, insulation and other items, but the corks would have to be shipped to Portugal. A Missouri craftsman has offered to turn them into floor tiles, but that's also a long haul with a big carbon footprint."I'm trying to focus on other options that are more local," Archey said. "Our mantra is to keep cork out of the landfills at all cost."For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
Recycling wine corks to reduce carbon footprint
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