Harvesting bark from the cork oaktree is good, from an ecological standpoint, notes bloggist and wood industry professor Chuck Ray. Organizations like Recork.org recycle cork for other uses, and Europeans have moved to boxed wines and synthetic corks, to avoid using the bark of the cork oak tree. But they shouldn't worry about it, Ray says, because the cork is a sponge for atmospheric carbon dioxide, and cork oak forests account for 10 million tons of CO2 absoprtion annually. A video tells more of the production of cork.
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