GRAMMY Awards Embrace Cork Wine Stoppers as Part of Commitment to Sustainability
In keeping with its commitment to improving its sustainability initiatives, the 53rd GRAMMY Awards hosted two events that served wine sealed exclusively with natural cork and will recycle all of the closures.
"Choosing cork over petroleum-based or metal wine stoppers is one of the many small but helpful decisions that consumers can make every day to improve the health of our planet," said Allen Hershkowitz, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "I applaud the GRAMMYs and other high-profile events that have embraced sustainability programs to protect biodiversity and reduce their carbon footprints."
Wines sealed with cork was served at the MusiCares® Person of The Year fundraiser honoring Barbra Streisand two days prior to the awards ceremony and at the official GRAMMY Celebration®.
Both the MusiCares fundraiser and the GRAMMY Celebration will be equipped with recycling bins provided by ReCORK, a cork recycling organization that will collect the stoppers and provide them to SOLE, a company that manufactures shoes and sandals from recycled cork.
Natural cork is one of the world's most sustainable products. Biodegradable and recyclable, its use provides an economic incentive to preserve vast cork oak forests in the Mediterranean Basin that trap greenhouse gases, prevent desertification and provide habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species.
There is no shortage of cork, and cork oaks are not cut down to make cork. A portion of their bark is removed every nine years during a 250-year lifespan.