Knowing this, I may be less fussy about those funky plastic corks that come in not just wine bottles, but also balsamic vinegar and all kinds of other stuff. Some companies have even gone to screw-top on very decent wines. I found this on winesby.com: "As many as 1 in 12 bottles is corked, which means bacteria that entered the wine by a defective cork spoils the quality of the wine. Screw caps offer an airtight seal which eliminates the possibilies of corked wine. It is the best protection for wines consumed under 10 years of age, which makes up 95% of all wines consumed in the U.S." So once again, we can vote with our dollars.

I save some of the more interesting ones and am working on bulletin board project #2. The less interesting ones I put in the compost. I never imagined there were facilities for actually recycling them!

I had been wanting to use cork on my kitchen floor, given the sustainability of it. Have I been misled? I thought that was one of the main features of cork, the fact that you weren't destroying the tree but peeling the bark to yield new crops. Are bottle corks from the same plants or do they destroy more of the tree to yield the product?

I recycle my corks for many things at home and in my office, from fillers in planters that are too big to furniture protectors and new bottle stoppers to hole plugs for finials whose threading has been stripped to picture frame corner protectors and school projects for my boys. I find all sorts of things for which they're useful. I buy in bulk to save on packaging and reuse my corks to stop soy sauce that I've poured into a beer bottle or a wine bottle I've placed olive oil in for countertop use.

Thanks for the info and I'll check out the links to learn more.