CORK THE NATURAL WONDER MATERIAL

While scientists are hard at work to find alternatives to carbonbased fuels and synthetic chemical materials, nature provides us with the perfect eco-friendly option.

Evidence suggests that Quercus Suber has been used by humans for over 5,000 years, providing floating devices, shoe soles, and also insulation from classical times onwards. The Cork Oak, which is native to the western extreme of the Mediterranean, flourishes in the wooded pasturelands of Spain, Portugal and also parts of Italy and North Africa, where it has formed part of a sustainable blend of pastoralism and extensive forestry for millennia. The difference between cork harvesting and normal forestrelated production is that it is fully cyclical and therefore sustainable, since the trees are not chopped down and can live for over 300 years. The cork barks are stripped in nine-year cycles when the cork oak reaches an age of 25 years. In this way, cork production forms part of a full-circle system that does not deplete the environment. In fact, the Spanish Dehesa and Portuguese Montado landscapes that characterise much of the Iberian Peninsula prevent desertification and provide an important habitat for large numbers of animal species.

A National Ecomaterial

Quite distinct from wood, cork is a uniquely light, flexible and impermeable material thanks to a set of physical characteristics that are found in almost no other natural substances. Composed of a complex structure of flexible membranes, cork is so fantastic because it is: impermeable – which makes it an ideal container or stopper of liquids; light and buoyant; flexible and malleable; a firstclass humidity, heat and sound insulator; natural and recyclable, not to mention fire retardant. Its production exploded with the expansion of the wine trade in the 19th and 20th centuries, yet in more recent times this important export market has come under threat from plastic and aluminium bottle tops utilised as wine stoppers by the likes of Australia, New Zealand and the USA. ›

Not only do plastic and aluminium products not have a natural origin like cork, but their production also releases respectively ten and 25 times more CO2 than that produced in the process of making bottle corks. Moreover, cork is a naturally degradable product, where aluminium and plastic bottle tops litter the land for decades, eventually leaching into our water supply and food production. It may be clear, then, that cork is one of the most environmentally friendly materials known to humankind. It has been handed to us by nature, with applications that stretch far beyond mere bottle stops to also include insulation material for the construction industry, machinery and even your humble thermos flask. Flooring, wall panels, decorative items, handbags, shoes, studio insulation, and even clothing can be made from cork—but this is only the beginning.

Modern Technology Loves Cork

We see cork as an almost artisanal, traditional industry, and it is, but it is also increasingly a high-tech sector with which science is rapidly falling in love. The reasons for this are simple: cork is relatively easy to produce, it is natural, offers the kind of sustainable solution we’re looking for right now, and it has an expansive and growing range of exciting applications, ranging from more typical items such as badminton shuttles and baseballs to sealing and friction reduction for machinery, fire insulation, heat shields in spacecraft, shoe manufacture, scale models, construction materials, fishing and boating equipment, recording studios, and as an additive to concrete in building.

As a natural alternative to potentially harmful petrochemical materials such as neoprene and polystyrene, cork is a material of the future, giving us the perfect example of production and usage that is in harmony with nature. Though there is some cultivation in North Africa, Italy and southern France, the bulk of global production comes from Spain and Portugal, where Corticeira Amorim is not only the industry leader, but also one of the most important Portuguese conglomerates and a developer of next-generation technologies and applications derived from this most natural and noble of materials.

It is time that this unsung wonder material is given its rightful place in a world that is desperately looking for sustainable, environmentally friendly alternatives, and sometimes guilty of overcomplicating things when the natural solution has been there all along.

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The cutting of the cork bark does not damage the trees and allows them to produce another harvest