23rd Mar 2010
Is Cork Flooring Eco Friendly?
The fact that cork floor products come from trees may be the cause of some concern to many people. It is generally perceived that anything that is produced from trees can’t be environmentally friendly, and considering the massive deforestation around the world, this is usually true. But cork is very different.
Cork is harvested from the cork oak tree, native to several countries on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The highest producers being Portugal, Algeria, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Morocco and France. Cork trees are NOT cut down to make cork products. The ability of allowing their outer bark to be removed and not be harmed is where these trees are unique.
Once a tree reaches a certain level of maturity the farmers are able to harvest the outer bark. Then a harvested tree is left for a period of about ten years to regenerate a new layer of bark. Each tree can give several hundred kilo’s of cork per harvest. They can live as long as two hundred years or more, even after repeated harvests. The process of removing the bark also increases the amount of carbon dioxide the tree consumes from the air by as much as three to five times.
The cork tree farmers harvest the cork to produce wine bottle stoppers. It is the waste bark from the process of cutting out the bottle stoppers that cork flooring manufacturers then use to make their products such as cork tile flooring. So a recycling chain has begun from the start.
Even during the manufacture of natural cork flooring, the adhesives and finishing substances are environmentally friendly. They do not contain any Formaldehyde, and VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) are not detectable.
Once you are finished with your cork products and dispose of them, the cork is adsorbed back into the soil.
So over all cork floors are a very ecologically sound. From the sustainability of the forests, which helps the environment and keeping highly skilled people in work.
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