I have just been turning over a compost heap which we started using 5 years ago and finished using 2 years ago. It took all our organic kitchen waste as well as garden rubbish. Everything we put in it has rotted down nicely - except the wine bottle corks, which have emerged almost unaltered.
Clearly, conventional, low-tech, garden composting isn't the answer. What other and better solutions can people offer, apart from sending them off to landfill via the dustbin?
2007-07-29 01:51:54 · 8 answers · asked by Bob C 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Other - Home & Garden
What Are Creative Ways to Recycle Wine Cork?
If the concept of wine cork recycling catches on, recycling wine cork in the US may someday be as simple as recycling newspapers or soda cans. In the meantime, however, those who live in America can recycle their wine corks through a few creative means.
While some people have donated wine corks to children's museums, for use in displays and dioramas, others have made wreaths and decorative pieces out of old wine corks. Some people wire together wine corks and make hot pads while others suggest gluing sliced wine corks to the bottom of vases and knickknacks, as a means to keep these items from scratching tables and shelves. People have even found old wine corks useful as door stops, knife scrubbers, and pin cushions.
Just as wine should never go to waste, neither should wine corks. A highly useable material, there are several ways wine corks can be recycled, even if it's not routinely done on a national level. With all the kinds of packaging that can destroy the Earth, cork is an exception. A special material, cork is able to protect wine and the world by putting a stop to wastefulness.
2007-07-29 07:15:46 · answer #1 · answered by glorious angel 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The corks you have may not work for this project.. However, I've seen wine corks used as a decorating accessory's.. The used corks were saved and used inside a clear lamp base as the filler... I've also seen wine corks glued together standing up and tied around the edges to for a "cork message board" I've even seen them used as the top of a coffee table glued upright in rows to form the top ! I guess you might have to use your imagination and see what your corks can be made into.. Or you can always leave that to someone else and go to freecycle.org and list wine corks and maybe someone has a different use for them... Good luck..
2007-07-29 02:03:01 · answer #2 · answered by pebblespro 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As a teenage wine enthusiast, I keep everything to do with wine- bottles, labels, corks, etc.- in an extension of my granddads wine cellar and take them out from time to time to study them and hopefully squeeze a few more drops of wine from them.
Sometimes, though, I try building things from them. I have to alter them and cut them basically into different shapes in order to be able to build from them. I have a wonderful collection of cork models, ranging from the houses of parliment to the leaning tower of pisa.
I suggest you do that, try making different things from the corks and displaying them around the house- make a hobby of cork buildings- it is great fun!
2007-07-29 05:01:24 · answer #3 · answered by AG Bellamy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You might just break them or grind them up and just leave them in the compost to act as aeration, much like they use pearlite (sp) in potting soils.
I was initially going to suggest decorating ideas, however w/ the corks having been in a compost pit, I don't think this will be a viable option.
2007-07-29 02:00:31 · answer #4 · answered by MajorTom © 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I recently saw on HGTV.com where they used wine corks as a decoration by hanging them on the bottom of a lamp shade, looked real cute too.
However, I would offer to pass them off to fishing friends to use as corks , or string fish line through them and use them to put keys on for fishing friends in case their keys fall overboard.. Even lightweight ones could be glued together for this purpose.or as packing peanuts for mailing.
2007-07-29 02:00:53 · answer #5 · answered by llittle mama 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
cork is a good insulation medium so maybe they could be packed into bags and used to stop heat escaping from hot water tanks walls etc, pushed into tights for draught excluders sterilised and reused in other bottles,threaded onto string to make bead curtains u have really got my imagination working overtime.
2007-07-29 11:00:09 · answer #6 · answered by icedragon 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
drill hole in oak tree insert cork.
2007-07-29 02:04:12 · answer #7 · answered by HaSiCiT Bust A Tie A1 TieBusters 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
stop drinking wine then you wont have the problem
2007-07-29 02:03:55 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋