by Tony Aspler
A local initiative in Toronto by The Girl Guides of Canada is helping save the environment by recycling wine corks. Two years ago today, Ontario Girl Guides began recycling the estimated 500 tonnes of natural cork bottle stoppers that wind up
in Ontario landfill sites each year. Consumers and businesses in the greater Toronto area were asked to save their natural cork bottle stoppers and deposit them at any affiliate location in their area. The corks were then collected by members of Guiding and sorted and sold to Jelinek Cork, where they were converted into a myriad of different products including floor tiles, corkboards and sporting equipment.
Bag-a-Cork is now the largest program of its kind in North America. Ontario Girl Guides have collected over 5 tonnes of cork bottle stoppers and grown to over 150 collection locations, primarily from the greater Toronto area. Today the Guides are launching an expansion of the program to communities supported by Guiding throughout the province.
With the expansion of the Bag-a-Cork programme Ontario Girl Guides have developed the C.O.R.K. Fund, short for Creating Opportunities for Resourceful Kids, wherein Guiding members that Adopt-a-Bin will be able to receive proceeds to create an environmental-based programme in their own neighbourhood.
