CORK

Cork is most often thought of as a bottle stopper.  This renewable resource is more recently bring used for every purpose imaginable - whether it is flooring, iPhone Cases, Handbags, furniture or even NASA employing it in the insulation of their space shuttles. 

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More and more industries are appreciating the versatile and eco-friendly quantities of cork.  Here is a little more about the makeup of cork:

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Cork's unique honeycomb-like composition results in low thermal conductivity and good heat storage properties.  Cork is a heat insulator, it is also lightweight, attractive, flame resistant, naturally waterproof, breathable, highly abrasion-resistant, and it can be manipulated into a myriad of shapes and sizes.  Cork is also entirely biodegradable and the cork oak tree growth pulls CO2 from the atmosphere.

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A piece of cork the size of a sugar cube contains around 60 million air-filled pockets.  No other material can match that.  This makes cork extremely elastic.  Cork can be also pressed to 40% of its volume , but returns to its original size when released.

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Sixty percent of the global production of cork is made into corks for wine and champagne.  Most of the world's cork comes from Portugal 60%, Spain 30%, and Italy 10% approximately.

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How It's Harvested:

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It takes 20-30 years for a cork oak tree to reach harvestable status.  The first harvest, and sometimes the second  one, is of low quality cork, and cork cutters must wait a decade to cut that same tree again.

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When cork oak is ready it is harvested for its outer layers for the rest of its 200-250 year lifespan.  This equates to about 12 harvests per tree.

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The trees are not cut down.  The bark is simply removed and it grows back.

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This process actually takes 4 to 5 skilled laborers using hand axes, and cannot be performed by a machine.  The business is large enough that it annually employees about 30,000 people throughout Europe.

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