# 0040
Amorim recycled mixed waste cork tube and sheet panels
Material, Several Things, Common, Recycled, Museum, Composite, Decades
Socio-cultural Data
Historical Uses
Bark from the cork oak, Quercus suber L. has a long provenance of use from ancient and modern historical to contemporary times in Portugal and countries bordering the Mediterranean sea.
Present Uses
Diverse. Commercial companies, such as Amorim in Portugal established in the late 19th century diversified their product range over the last two decades to expand from the production of corks for wine bottles into other markets - wall and floor tiles, insulation, building blocks, furniture and more.
Experimental, near future uses
In the exhibition the Museum of Vibrant Matter at the Porto Design Biennale 2021 digital crafters Spectroom created a new thread using cork fibres for the company Gencork. This yarn can be applied to making lightshades and textiles. Amorim continues to experiment with new uses including these these samples of cork granules compressed with mixed rubber and/or pre-consumer plastic waste granules for tubes and sheet materials.
Other Fascinating Facts
Amorim, the leading cork manufacturing company in Portugal, creates 5,300 million cork stoppers, 60,000m3 of insulatinon and uses 736 tonnes of recycled cork per annum.
Technical Data
Class of Material
Composite
Bio-temporal-geographical Data
Residence time (How long does the matter/material/artefact stay in an unaltered state in the location/context/system before it decay?)
Decades
How does the item affect the environment in which it exists?
I don't Know
Ontological-cosmological Data
comforting
How would you like to be with this artefact/material/living thing/matter?
in my home
What can humans give back to this artefact/material/living thing/matter?
look after it, then recycle it again