Advantages / Benefits of Cork
The cork oak characterizes the most of the landscape of Sardinia, the largest cork oak area ae in Gallura, Goceano, in the area of Mandrolisai and in the Sulcis Iglesiente, cork is an important element for the Sardinianeconomy and the distinctive features of the Sardinian craft work . The firstuse of cork could be dated back to about 3000 years ago.
Sardinia produces about 80% of the national production of cork, and it has the largest extensions of land devoted to cork oak, approximately 90,000 hectares of land.
The cork oak can be a large or small tree (it can reach 20 meters high) with the trunk and branches covered with a layer of tissues that acts as a protective coating to preserve the plant from the weather and possible fire. The roots of the plant can grow for several meters deep down in the ground, which enables the tree to adapt to water shortage. It can live up to three hundred years and prefers rainy and mild climates an altitude below 1,000 meters.
The bark that surrounds the plant, the cork, is extracted from the oak tree for its elasticity, strength, lightweight and waterproof and used for various fields such as clothing, footwear, construction building, craft and wine-making industry. The bark is removed every 10 years and never before 18 years of age.
The cork can be divided into 3 types:
- Male Cork: is extracted for the first time when is very hard and uneven, the process by which male cork is extracted is called "stripping" and is made when the oak tree is at least 60 cm in circumference and 120/130 cm height
- Cork kind or first production: the cork is extracted after 10 years from the first “extraction" .
- Cork for later productions.
Cork is widely used in the construction industry for its insulating features both for thermal and noise reduction,which is determined by the fact that its cells contain bubbles that allow the formation of an excellent insulating conditions, the wine industry uses cork stoppers that allow an excellent preservation of wine, It is produced billions of cork stoppers each year and also in the footwear industry, it is used to produce fabric and sole for shoes;
