A corking conundrum

At the risk of sounding like – well, as if I enjoyed a glass or two more than I should – I’ve started questioning the bottle. More precisely, what seals it up. I’ve noticed that there’s hardly any bottles of booze that come with old-school wooden bungs these days. They all seem to be sporting the solidly practical screw top or the suspiciously foamy plastic stopper. Of course, wine buffs might say that new technologies like this are better at keeping wine over time. They might also point out that it’s cheaper to do it too, meaning bargain vino for the rest of us. But really – what about all the bloody trees?

Corks come from a tree that’s covered in a thick bark. Originally, it evolved as protection from forest fires, but now it’s usually pulled off every 12 years or so in sheets. These can be harvested easily for decades, providing cover for animals, stopping run-off on hills and soaking up carbon pollution. The fact that they sound so good as they’re pulled from a bottle of grog is merely a bonus.

Apparently, around 20 billion stoppers are manufactured each year. They’re only small, but 20 billion of them? Imagine that lot sliding down the side of a landfill like an alco-avalanche. And while the metal tops are made of recyclable aluminium, the sealing pads stuck inside the cap aren’t – which kind of defeats the object of using a recyclable material.

But what’s shocking about the entire debate – yes, time to put your glass down for a sec – is that this year, an official study was made into the relative environmental benefits of corks, screw tops and plastic bungs. PricewaterhouseCooper examined the transport, packaging, and production of each type of bottle stopper and – drum roll please – natural cork came out top. A plastic bung emits ten times more    carbon, while a metal screw cap emits a whopping 24 times more!

So my mind’s made up. It’s practically a duty to seek out the cork these days and promote its use. And if my largest carbon output comes from the foaming neck of a bottle of fizzy plonk – all the better!

Ed Chipperfield

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