RCBC ZERO WASTE PROFILE Business Case Study

Recycling One at a Time Ian Simpson’s Cork It

By Isaac Yuen

Founded in 2012, Cork It is a program Rethinking the Mundane Did You Know? of services that uses the cork Cork stoppers are usually seen as a • Roughly 13 to change the way we see mundane packaging product, but billion corks are waste. Post-consumer cork stoppers Simpson believes that they can produced annually. are collected through local partner provide an ideal entry point to explore sites and upcycled into a variety of societal attitudes towards waste. • Cork stoppers new products. require 1/4 to 1/6 energy to Cork is a renewable resource that can produce than Inspired by Vancouver’s Greenest be harvested without causing hardship plastic or metal stoppers. Cities initiative, Cork It founder Ian to source trees. Simpson notes that Simpson has three goals: To divert recycling and repurposing cork • 80% of valuable materials from the waste worldwide are stoppers not only educates the public still closed by stream, to leverage services that will on waste reduction, but also other natural corks. increase an individual’s skill, environmental issues. For example, • 70,000 corks knowledge, and initiative, and to add cork forest ecosystems serve as have been value back to the local community. massive carbon sinks and biodiversity recycled by Cork It to date. hotbeds.

Recycling Council of BC - www.rcbc.ca 604-732-9253 or toll-free 1-800-667-4321 RCBC ZERO WASTE PROFILE

Recycled Cork Product Prototypes:

• Top Left: holder by KAN design

• Middle Left: Float - A Buoyant Bath Game by Solveeig Johanessan, Educe Design and Innovation.

• Top Right: Prototype garden box, Gordon Neighbourhood House

• Bottom Left: Archie, designed by Ian Simpson & Angus Wong, exhibited by the Vancouver Design Bureau.

• Middle Right: Pop, a wall- mounted hanging system by student design team Fika.

• Bottom Right: A cork bowl mould by KAN design.

Credit: Most process and product shots by students of Cork Studio.

Collaborations Abound stores and the Roundhouse that cork is a recyclable and One of Cork It’s flagship Community Center to provide sustainable resource. projects is the Cork Studio at free public drop-off spots for Emily Carr University of Art used cork stoppers. By offering services that and Design, made possible facilitate recycling resources through a partnership with Getting The Word Out and enhancing economical, instructor Christian Blyt and One challenge for Cork It has social and environmental his New Wood Materials capital, Cork It hopes to use course. Over a six-week been to cultivate a robust the stopper as a powerful period, student design teams network of collectors and explore ways to turn corks into avenues for product material to evoke a variety of retail products, development. Cork is still conversation, innovation, gaining valuable experience relatively unknown, but intervention and education from working with this unique Simpson has seen firsthand around economies of waste recycled material. enthusiasm around working and sustainability. with this versatile material. Cork It currently works with Collection base expansion is Learn more at Vancouver Whole Foods key towards raising awareness http://www.corkit.ca/

Recycling Council of BC - www.rcbc.ca 604-732-9253 or toll-free 1-800-667-4321