Municipal Council of São Brás de Alportel launches recycling campaign

Taking cork stoppers to a cork recycling bank is the challenge that the Municipal Council of São Brás de Alportel, in the Algarve, has issued to local inhabitants. This is the latest initiative by the local authority in the area of waste separation and recycling, and since the end of February, the units can be found at Ecoponto recycling stations throughout the municipality, where paper, glass, packaging and batteries are also collected. But even before the cork recycling bank, the local authority had already began collecting cork stoppers once a fortnight from around 15 restaurants in the region.

Cork Recycle Bin – São Brás de Alportel © by APCOR

For Marlene Guerreiro, from the municipal image, documentation and information bureau, “the initiative has been well received by restaurants and we have even had restaurants in Loulé and Albufeira (other cities in the Algarve) ringing us to ask us to come to collect cork stoppers”.
The same opinion is shared by the councillor responsible for the environment, Vítor Guerreiro, who is full of confidence in this measure, since “in São Brás de Alportel, the use of recycling banks is increasing all the time, which is a reflection of greater environmental awareness, of the importance of recycling and reusing materials. I am certain that cork, as the most representative raw material in the municipality's industry will receive a positive response from the public.”

After the fires last summer which affected a considerable area of cork oaks in this region, the Municipal Council decided to “Give new life to cork stoppers”. Thus in October 2004 it joined the cork stopper recycling project presented at the 2004 Feira da Serra, and organised by the Rota da Cortiça Association and the Algarve and Baixo Alentejo Delegation of the Association of Portuguese Producers and Exporters of Cork (AIEC). The initiative aims to develop a procedure for the reuse and recycling of cork stoppers from bottles or demijohns, and obtain products for various different purposes. The objects can put on sale, thus helping to raise awareness of the importance of ecological issues in the protection of the environment.

Cork Recycle Bin – São Brás de Alportel © by APCOR

After being collected by the local authority, the cork stoppers are taken to the municipal recycling facilities where they are sorted. Subsequently, they will be ground and transformed into a variety of products. The Municipal Council has recently called for tenders to find a company that will process the cork stoppers. The product will be sold by the local authority for symbolic sum which will be given to the AIEC to promote the initiative.

Through the recycling process, used cork stoppers are transformed into various other products: corkboards, place mats, coasters, flooring, gaskets, insulation material and other products.
Alongside its significant investment in the collection and processing of waste, the Municipal Council has also developed educational and environmental awareness projects, to instill the essential principles of respect for the environment into the population, particularly among young people. A brochure on cork recycling has been distributed to the whole local population.