The harvesting of cork takes place in the summer when the bark expands and naturally comes away from the inner layer of the tree.

Machine, routed, lathe-worked, cut using similar techniques to woodworking and can be formed using a process similar to compression-moulding plastics. It can be turned into a sheet, woven as a textile and even combined with other flecks of different types of cork to make composites. Also formed into placemats, dartboards, shoe liners, anti-vibration pads, handles for sporting goods, contemporary furniture, fabrics.

Rapidly renewable and biodegradable. Cork trees absorb 5x more C02 than other trees while producing a new harvest of cork bark every nine years. Each mature cork tree produces enough cork bark to make 4,000 bottle stoppers every nine years.

Good weight to strength ratio. Very lightweight, impermeable to liquids and gases, elastic, vibration/shock dampening and good thermal insulation properties.

One of the few materials that has a Poisson ration of 0, which means that it does not get thinner when stretched, unlike most other springy materials.

Water resistant. Cork trees can easily withstand fires. As a result, they are planted to act as fire barriers.