CITYWIDE — The sound of a popping cork is music to many people’s ears, but it means something different to Matt Hughes.
Hughes is the director of ReCork, a nonprofit organization that collects used wine corks and repurposes them to make shoes with the help of the Vancouver-based shoe maker Sole.
ReCork was established by Amorim Cork America, an arm of the Portuguese cork producer Amorim, to help reclaim some of the 13 to 14 billion corks used every year, many of which end up in landfills.
Although ReCork has successfully gathered over 16 million corks, it needed a little help to catapult over the 20 million cork mark, which Hughes called a “milestone number.”
That’s where Gerri-Lynn Becker came in.
Becker is the director of operations at the California Wine Club, a 21-year-old organization that ships wine to its members across the country.
“Ultimately, it came down to a moment in my kitchen,” Becker said.
She had opened a bottle of wine and was about to throw the cork into the recycling container when she stopped.
“I’m embarrassed to say, I never considered what to do with the cork,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wait a second, I can’t put this in recycling.’”
Becker knew that both she and many of the customers of her club drink wine regularly, and she got to wondering: Where did all those corks go?
The answer: Flooring tiles, shoes, craft materials, sports equipment and automotive gaskets, among dozens of other uses.
Becker’s research led her to ReCork, which already partnered with manufacturers to reuse the natural cork, and then went the extra mile to plant new cork trees in Mediterranean climates.
Together, Hughes and Becker created the Put a Cork In It! campaign, reaching out to anyone and everyone with an extra cork on their hands and asking them to send them in to ReCork.
The California Wine Club committed to paying the cost to mail each shipment, which would then go to Sole, which will then donate shoes to needy children.
To sweeten the deal, the club promised $10 of wine for every 30 corks sent in.
They quickly had to rescind that offer.
“One person, in Oregon, had 15,000 corks!” Becker said. “The common response from people is ‘I didn’t know what to do with them, or I was saving them for an art project.”
Within 48 hours of the campaign’s launch, the club received 30 requests for postage, and now, weeks before the Sept. 30 deadline, ReCork is about to surpass its 20 million cork goal.
Hughes expected that a shipment en route would push them over the edge.
Local wine bars are still hearing about the program, but think it could be a useful outlet for the hundreds of corks they go through a week.
Rachel Bryan, the sommelier at the Pourtal Wine Bar, was excited to hear about a local California program.
The bar always set the corks aside for recycling, but didn’t think it had an option to get rid of them locally.
“We used to send our corks to an organization in Philadelphia that fought autism. We mailed them then,” she said.
Now, a local comes and picks them up to use in art projects.
Over at Bodega, owner Greg Seares said that he avoids corks, opting instead for screw tops and synthetic caps.
“With regular cork, five percent of the wines we get are ‘corked,’ and have a problem and the wine is ruined,” Seares said.
The corks he did accrue, he usually threw away.
This past week, however, Bodega collected several bags for a customer who’d requested them for an art project, but never picked them up.
He was happy to hear there might be a way to dispose of the bags, which were taking up space in his office.
“It seems silly to throw them away,” he said. “That’s a totally cool, good use.”
The Put a Cork In It! campaign is ongoing until Sept. 30. After the deadline, ReCork plans to plant 1,000 new cork trees in Portugal.
The California Wine Club may stay involved after that, but people can still ship their corks in for free to ReCork.
ashley@www.smdp.com