How about a new way to look at being possibly eco-friendly after you uncork a bottle of wine? It’s enough that we already enjoy a glass or for some even a bottle, the question is, if you knew you were doing a good thing to help our environment, wouldn’t you enjoy it that much more?
If we can find a few ways to recycle or re-use the corks that come from our wine bottles rather than let it go to landfill, we here at How Cool believe that it would be rather cool to make use of what we would otherwise throw away!
Cork Art created by Jan Elftmann, “Bowling Ball”. This should get the ball rolling… hahaha
Frankly Wine, a Manhattan wine shop located in New York, have used their corks wisely. This wall is constructed out of 15,000 corks.
Das Wiese has created this amazing armchair made of 3,000 corks. Wiese is a cabinet maker by day and has test driven his cork masterpieces himself.
Creator of this incredible Chaise Lounge, Daniel Michalik, has used cork from a commercial bottle-stopper industry to produce this organic chaise lounge. Michalik stated, “I have discovered that when handled correctly, the natural flexibility of cork allows it to form fantastic, complex shapes no other material can match.” He also said, “The balanced form, along with the pliability of the material allows the user of this lounge to rock gently from side to side or on her back with a great degree of stability. The result is a sensation of floating, weightless and (being) totally supported.”
The 17-inch tall chair is composed of pure granulated cork (sourced directly from bottle-stopper manufacturers), which is held together using a non-toxic, eco-friendly binding agent.
There is nothing Spartan about this 300 thousand mosaic piece created by Artist Saimir Strati. Strati constructed this amazing mosaic cork by cork on the side of a Sheraton Hotel (the mosaic is the world’s largest cork mosaic thus far). Strati has used 300,000 corks arranged in layers, which showcases a 3D effect work of art. He has worked on previous projects such as a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci made with half a million nails and a horse constructed from 1.5 million toothpicks.
So after all these inspirational ideas, do you think that you might start to recycle your corks?
In Australia, wine and champagne corks are collected from numerous drop off points by community groups such as Friends of the Zoos (VIC), Girl Guides Australia (QLD and NT), Motor Neuron Disease (VIC), and Green Collect (Melbourne only). These groups recycle the corks to raise funds for their programs.
http://recyclingnearyou.com.au/cork
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