It is “popping up” everywhere: cork. Known for its wine bottle role, versatile, sustainable cork is being used as a source material in a wide variety of new products. ReCORK just announced it has developed a material made from 75 percent recycled natural cork to be used as a replacement for petroleum-based foam used in shoe soles. The material will be featured in a new line of shoes by ReCORK’s founding company, SOLE.
At this past fall’s Boutique Design New York, I was introduced to cork leather by TFS Natural Home’s Suzanne Diamond who showed me an example of how the material was used to upholster a chair. I spoke with Suzanne and Sustainiture’s Steve Sechrest about their companies’ use of cork leather recently. Be sure to look for my article this coming week on the Green Lodging News website. I was very impressed by cork leather’s quality, and it has incredible potential in our industry—not only for upholstery but also for wallcoverings and any other object that has the potential for a covering. Cork leather, with its natural grain design, is available in a wide variety of textures, patterns, and colors.
Any piece designed with cork as part of it comes with a great sustainability story. Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree and regenerates after harvest. Harvesting is done every seven to 10 years. In between harvests the cork trees are a carbon sink removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Harvesting biodegradable cork helps increase the tree’s lifetime expectancy and the natural ecosystems where trees grow.
More Benefits from Cork Oak Trees
The acorn, the cork tree’s fruit, serves as food for other animals, to further seed new trees, and to produce culinary oil. Moreover, the leaves can be used as natural fertilizers and fodder for the animals. The tree’s pruning results in vegetal coal and wood, useful for many immediate communities and post-processed products. The cork tree oils also find an interesting application through its chemical properties, such as natural beauty products.
Cork protects against allergies and can be used risk-free by people with asthma and other people susceptible to small airborne particles. Cork leather is waterproof, scratch-resistant, and stain-resistant.
The environmental story of Cork leather’s counterpart, traditional leather, is of course quite different. With no offense to those companies who wisely and creatively recycle leather from the beef industry, the environmental impact of most leather is negative—water pollution from the tanning process, for example. Most leather produced in the U.S. is chrome-tanned, and all wastes containing chromium are considered hazardous by the EPA. Raising animals for food and leather requires huge amounts of feed, pastureland, water, and fossil fuels. An incredible amount of valuable forest has been lost thanks to beef and leather demand. One could go on and on.
As you consider new furniture or new renovations for your property, be sure to include cork products in the mix—especially cork leather. I have come across many potential game changers over the years and cork leather certainly is one.
Green Lodging News Welcomes Multiplast Systems as Founding Sponsor
Green Lodging News has added Multiplast Systems Inc. as a Founding Sponsor at the Bronze Level. MultiPlast Systems Inc. produces and sells Bio-Enhanced Degradable Additive (BEDA®) to plastic manufacturers and distributors worldwide. The look, feel, performance and integrity are not changed when BEDA® is added. BEDA®’s benefits begin when product is dumped into a landfill. Since 75.8 percent of plastic ends up in a landfill, this becomes a highly valued and legitimate solution to increase the degradation process in landfills versus products that have no additive. BEDA provides a natural solution to combat this worldwide problem. For more information, contact Jeff Apisdorf at (440) 349-0800 or e-mail japisdorf@multiplastsystems.com.
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