Corticeira Amorim promotes cork recycling in New York

The Cork Collective program was launched in partnership with Rockwell Group, BlueWell and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, leaders in the hospitality, design, wine and spirits industries, aimed at supporting the circular economy and local community projects.

Corks collected from restaurants and hotels in Manhattan and Brooklyn will be recycled and the cork used for new purposes, including developing resources to enhance public spaces.

Corticeira Amorim, a world leader in cork processing, is joining forces with prestigious partners in the US to launch Cork Collective, a new selective collection and recycling program for cork stoppers. This initiative, promoted with leaders from the wine, spirits, hospitality and design sectors, aims to promote the circular economy and support local community projects, highlighting the commitment to sustainability.

Cork Collective – which involves renowned partners such as Rockwell Group, BlueWell and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, the world’s leading distributor of spirits – is being developed in New York, encompassing the collection of corks from iconic restaurants and hotels in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Used cork stoppers will be collected, recycled and reused for new uses, creating resources to enhance public spaces in New York City.

António Rios de Amorim, Chairman and CEO of Corticeira Amorim, highlights the key role of this partnership: “The US is a crucial market for both wines and spirits, so we couldn’t be more pleased to be one of the founding members of the Cork Collective, which enables the true implementation of a circular economy in the supply chain. As a world leader in cork transformation, supplying around six billion corks per year, we have collaborated with several organisations around the world to give cork a second life, recycling corks into a variety of applications.”

David Rockwell, Founder and Chairman of Rockwell Group, said: “I am incredibly proud to be a founding member of the Cork Collective, which represents so much of what inspires and drives Rockwell Group every day: the opportunity to give back to our community and make a difference, to apply our vision of hospitality, combining fantastic design and unexpected collaborations to meet this new challenge. We have been experimenting with cork for some time now – it’s adaptability and powerful sustainable qualities make it a material of the future.”

Lee Schrager, Chief Communications Officer for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, said: “The Cork Collective’s mission aligns with our vision for environmental sustainability – harnessing the passion of our teams, business partners and communities to implement measurable environmental actions and contribute to a sustainable and welcoming planet for future generations. As the leading distributor of spirits, we are uniquely positioned to connect wine and spirits producers on sustainability, engaging them as valued supplier partners in this important initiative. We are confident it will have a significant impact across our great hospitality and restaurant industry.”

In addition to the direct benefits of reusing a circular economy material, the Cork Collective program also collaborates with non-governmental institutions and government agencies to improve public spaces, demonstrating the potential of cork as a versatile and environmentally friendly material, supporting sustainable design projects in diverse communities.

Alongside this project, Corticeira Amorim will continue to invest in R&D and prioritize the best partners to support collection, seeking to ensure that a greater number of corks are recycled and transformed in Portugal and around the world.

Cork collection and recycling programs:

Corticeira Amorim promotes several initiatives, with several partners, for the selective collection of cork stoppers on five continents, which, together, has already allowed the collection and recycling of 1200 t in 2024.

In Portugal, since 2008, Corticeira Amorim has been associated with Green Cork, a project organized by the Environmental Non-Governmental Organization (ONGA), Quercus, which involves several partners, collecting more than 528 tons of cork stoppers (2023: 29 t) and planting more than 1.6 million native trees (2023: 106 thousand).

In France, the Ecobouchon project is the world champion in selective collection for cork recycling at Corticeira Amorim. Launched 14 years ago and supported by the strong dynamism of local associations. In this context, in the French market it has already been possible to collect and recycle 517 million corks, the equivalent of more than two thousand tons of cork. Thanks to the program, to date, more than €600,000 has been donated to research for 50 associations.

There are also other initiatives implemented in different geographies, namely Etico (Italy), Recork (North America), Cork Life (South Africa) and Cork2Cork (Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France and Italy, in partnership with NH Hotels), generating enthusiasm and great support. Distributed around the world, these initiatives have a significant impact on the community, associating with and supporting reforestation actions, environmental education initiatives and social responsibility activities.

About Corticeira Amorim
Corticeira Amorim is the largest cork processing group in the world. Founded in 1870, the company today has dozens of business units spread across five continents, exports numerous products to more than 100 countries and has a diversified network of 30 thousand customers. Basing its operations on strong sustainability credentials, and developing activity with a positive impact on climate regulation, Corticeira Amorim provides a set of solutions, materials and articles for some of the most technological, disruptive and demanding activities in the world, such as the aerospace, automotive, construction, sports, energy, design and architecture, and wine, sparkling wine and spirits industries. Currently under the leadership of the fourth generation of the family, which cultivates the values ​​of sobriety, ambition, initiative, pride and attitude, the same as always in these more than 150 years of successful history, the company invests millions of euros annually in R&D+I, and recorded, in 2023, 986 million euros in consolidated sales, which include approximately 5.6 billion corks, representing 75.9% of consolidated sales.

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