Cake tissue is a sustainable material that deserves incubation

Plastic has become everywhere in the material world, thanks to a large part of the low cost and durability. Unfortunately, these features are also the problem. Plastic takes centuries to analyze and pollute each of the planet.

For textiles, non -plastic options are easy enough. For the most durable goods where the skin is generally used, consumers have a choice between vegetable skin, which is generally made of plastic – or animal product. For many of us, no choice is desirable. Enter Cork Leather!

Cake tissue is a natural or leather alternative made of a CORK oak tree. The bark that is harvested from the oak tree is renovated after stripping the cork, making it a sustainable and decomposing resource, and almost all CORK products can be recycled.

Cake tissue is light, not compressed, and contains low thermal connection. CORK materials are used as building materials, in musical instruments, in missiles such as insulation, packaging, shoes, furniture, and recently, clothes and accessories.

Types of Oak Cork (Quercus PreserIt is the home of the western Mediterranean basin. Portugal and Spain are the largest producers of Kitan. Portugal produces about 100,000 tons of cork annually, while Spain produces approximately 62,000 tons.

How to make cork tissue?

Cake harvesting process begins with the stage of abstraction. It is manually stripped with a special designed ax. The first abstraction occurs when the tree ranges between 20 and 30 years and does not meet the quality requirements for industrial use. The next stripped after nine years of the first.

The cork is boiled, mark, and cut. After that, the cork boards are separated with quality. CORK will also go through a drying phase and is washed more and then treats the industry that will be used. For corking tissue, the cork is left to dry for about six weeks, then boil in the water and settled to create the cork sheets. Cake tissue is produced from wrapped sheets of natural cork or by paste the cork to the fabric or another base. Since Cork is a fragile material, this second layer is necessary to use the fabric as a fabric.

History and uses

Despite its use in shoes for thousands of years, the CORK industry only started creating new CORK materials for things like furniture and covers in the late twentieth century, and the CORK fabric used in accessories and clothes only gained attention during the twenty -first century.

Companies can create cork skin to replace animal skin in bags, backpacks, wallets, belts, shoes, dresses or use of fabric for upholstery. according to One of the studies that look at Cork as fashion materialsCORK itself is not a real fabric as it should add an added or second layer to the fabric because the cork can be fragile. However, linking the cork to other fibers allows thin layers of the material, allowing the tissue to be sewn easily.

Cork for leather

Cork Leather is preferred on animal skin due to its sustainability and low environmental effect. It is worth noting that the cork can be used as a plastic -free humanitarian alternative to an animal product.

In the harvesting stage, which is manually done and with specialized tools, the CORK industry has a low environmental effect because OAK CORK trees renovate their bark after stripping them. The trees are stored in about nine other years to allow enough growth time.

according to research Compared to the cork and the skin, it has been proven that the cork covered with less water vapor permeability, low air permeability, upper corrosion resistance, and almost the same caloric capabilities such as animal skin. It turns out that the leather is thick almost twice than the coated cork, but the thermal resistance and thermal connection between the two articles were the same. Low air permeability means that the tissue can protect against winds, while low water permeability protects against water. Supreme corrosion resistance means that the material is able to resist corrosion.

Sustainability and environmental influence

Cork is a renewed resource. It can be recycled, as well as carbon dioxide insulation. The Portuguese Forest alone, which has 32 % of the Oak Cork International Forests, isolated 4.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, according to A study on the sustainability of the cork. In addition, when the bark is harvested from the cork tree, it produces between 250 % and 450 % of the cork of a tree that has not been harvested. Cake harvesting stimulates this growth, which will continue to isolate more carbon dioxide. The same study found that about 182,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be repaired with a production of 350,000 tons of cork.

Astronomical oak forest cycle can be divided into four stages, according to what he said Cake extraction analysis in Catalonia.

1. The first stage is cultivation, but this does not happen in Catalonia due to the natural renewal of trees.
2. The leap is stripped of the second stage. The greatest environmental effect occurs at this stage due to the transportation of workers and corks. Contributing to the capabilities of global warming (GWP) to assess the environmental impact, and the total, can contribute 145 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent to tons of one of the extracted cork.
3. The third stage is scratching, which occurs three years after the cork is stripped and is done to promote cork extraction in the future. However, some areas do not do so to reduce costs. The effect here is transportation, but it is less than stripping cork.
4. The final stage is to remove the shrub and manage the roads. This prevents competition between species, reduces fire risk, and if necessary, it opens new ways to reach the forest. This final stage in GWP will contribute to assessing the environmental effect at 33 kg of carbon dioxide.

In general, Cork He is Sustainable, but the specific materials and techniques used to create a cork tissue vary widely. For example, some companies used cotton from organic tissue (Gots) to create their texture. Gots is a tissue processing standard around the world that is used for organic fibers and includes social and environmental standards in this process.

Meanwhile, some companies treat their fabric with water repellents and spots that may contain perfect compounds (PFAs), known as “chemicals forever” in the environment. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Notes It has shown that “scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAs in the environment may be linked to the harmful effects of humans and animals.” (Other negative sources more susceptible.)

CORK products should be included if they use a fabric repellent and what is the support used in its products.

There is no system for issuing certificates yet for CORK fabrics, but RainForest Alliance tries to ratify cork forests in Spain and Portugal and witnessed the first Cork forest in Morocco in 2007. The sustainable forest certificate encourages environmental management and socially responsible for forests.

When the right is finished, the fabrics hit Cork and cork leather all the right notes. CORK provides a highly performance factory material, as a sustainable alternative to animal skin and plastic materials that pollute the planet. We’ll do the cork to that!