Cork is a sort of “green-building” material. It’s environmentally friendly and can be renewed and utilized in the production of various products, the two most predominant being wine-stoppers and cork floor boards. Cork is produced and harvested through the bark of the cork oak tree. Globally, the main cork oak forests are located in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Southern France. The reason for this is due to the climate and types of soil produced within these areas. Currently, Portugal will produce fifty percent of the worlds raw cork material in a given calendar year.
Understand that there are a few different types of cork trees. However, these cork trees produce a bark which is unusable for cork production. The cork used for wine-stoppers and for the production of cork floor boards comes exclusively from the bark of the cork oak tree. These trees produce Suberin, a waxy substance which adds to the versatility and functionality of the cork, making it a valuable investment. The Suberin possesses qualities allowing it to resist rotting caused by moisture, mildew, mold, and insect infestation. But still the question remains: Is all cork flooring really environmentally friendly? The answer is a kind of two-part answer. Environmentally speaking, Cork is environmentally safe, and can be seen as a renewable source of materials.
Cork oak trees are grown to be approximately twenty-five years of age before they can begin to be harvested. Using age-old techniques, the bark is gently stripped from the tree and generally sent to factories where the cork is processed and used in the production of wine-stoppers. The excess waste product that is produced in this process is then gathered and processed into sheets of cork, used in flooring or wall tiling. This process is extremely eco-friendly due to the fact that all of the cork is used either in the initial process or by gathering the waste using it productively.
The corking industry is highly regulated to ensure the survival of the cork oak trees. As mentioned previously, trees must reach an age of twenty-five before they can be subjected to being stripped. Once a tree has been stripped, it may not be used again for seven to nine years, allowing the bark to regenerate. This cycle reinforces the concept of cork being eco-friendly because the tree species is being preserved by regulating the amount of time which is allotted for the tree to reproduce its bark so as not to injure the source.
The on going production and the fact that cork is recycled down to the waste are the two main reasons cork can be seen as eco-friendly. However, out of all of the cork companies in the world, only a scarce few have taken the time to conduct and release their carbon footprint statistics. These statistics relay information regarding the amount of Green House Gases emitted by an individual, organization, event, or product. So in conclusion, all cork used for the production of flooring can be considered eco-cork. It is its nature!
