Launched in 2024 in New York, the Cork Collective cork stopper recycling programme brings together the passion and energy of four founding partners who excel in their respective fields. In addition to Corticeira Amorim, the programme’s partners include Rockwell - the prestigious architecture and design company, BlueWell - a company which specialises in sustainability and is dedicated to creating ecological solutions for clients around the world, and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits - one of the most influential distributors in the drinks industry. They are jointly mobilising their expertise to activate a sustainability initiative dedicated to endowing cork stoppers with a new lease of life, by transforming them into innovative, eco-friendly products that benefit communities and foster a greener future.
‘The US is a crucial market for both wines and spirits, so we are delighted to be one of the founding members of the Cork Collective, which facilitates true implementation of a circular economy in the supply chain. As the world’s leading cork processing company, supplying around six billion cork stoppers a year, we have collaborated with various organisations around the world to give cork stoppers a second life, recycling them to give rise to various applications,’ explained António Rios de Amorim, Corticeira Amorim’s Chairman and CEO, about this new partnership.
David Rockwell, the founder and chairman of the Rockwell Group, also emphasised the relevance of the initiative: ‘I am extremely proud to be a founding member of the Cork Collective, which represents much of what inspires and inspires the Rockwell Group every day: the opportunity to give back to our community and make a difference, to apply our vision of hospitality, combining amazing design and unexpected collaborations to meet this new challenge. We’ve been experimenting with cork for some time - its adaptability and powerful sustainable qualities make it a material of the future.’
For Lee Schrager, Chief Communications Officer at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, ‘Cork Collective’s mission is aligned with our own vision of environmental sustainability (...). As a leading distributor of alcoholic beverages, we are in a perfect position to connect wine and spirits producers in favour of sustainability, involving them as valuable supplier partners in this important initiative. We are confident that it will have a significant impact on our entire hospitality industry.’
Even in a metropolis as large as New York, it is possible to set in motion an initiative that will have a positive impact, based on many small actions that in conjunction make a big difference. Dedicated electric vehicles collect used cork stoppers from various places in Manhattan and Brooklyn, including some of the city’s finest hotels and iconic restaurants (such as the Marriott hotel chain, Gramercy Tavern and Melba’s and the famous Japanese restaurant, Nobu, among many others). After being collected, the stoppers are sent to the recycling facility in Wisconsin, where they are cleaned, crushed and prepared for reuse in a variety of applications, from floor coverings to solutions for the aerospace industry. Truly circular, this is a never-ending cycle!
