Why it pays to recycle cork
- Cork is a renewable raw material and therefore an environmentally friendly material.
- Cork waste is used to make insulating materials for houses, for example. This insulating material has a very low thermal conductivity value and also creates a pleasant indoor climate.
- Recycling cork protects the cork oak stocks. This helps to ensure that there will still be enough natural cork in the future.
- Even today, around 1.2 billion wine corks still end up as waste in Germany every year and are therefore missing from the recycling cycle.
Help us to use cork oak stocks sustainably
The raw material cork is obtained from the bark of the cork oak. The commercially used cork oaks grow in the western Mediterranean region. It takes 25 years from planting to the first harvest. After that, the bark of the trunks is harvested every 7 to 10 years.
As the demand for cork continues to increase and its popularity grows, it is important to make full use of this raw material in a sustainable way.
This means that the old natural cork products are collected and processed into granulate so that they can be used again. Many items such as floor, wall or kitchen utensils made from recycled cork can thus be reused sustainably.
Take your natural cork waste to a collection point
Please help us to use the cork oak stocks sustainably so that cork will continue to be available in sufficient quantities in the future.
What you can do
- Collect natural cork waste
- Find a collection point near you (a list of all cork collection points in Erlangen can be found at the bottom of the page)
- Deliver the cork there free of charge
What should go to the cork collection point?
YES:
The cork collection points accept natural corks and material made from cork granulate. The cork must be free of plaster, glue or chemical residues.
NO:
Corks made of plastic, coated cork, crown corks, cork wallpaper and material made of expanded cork belong in the residual waste or - if it is packaging plastic - in the yellow bag.
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