QUESTION: Can you put corks in compost? We like to drink wine and hate to throw away the corks if we can recycle or reuse them in some way. – Mark R
ANSWER: Real corks are actually compostable, but you’ll want to double check that your cork is the real deal—natural cork, which is made of the bark of the cork oak tree—and not an artificial alternative, like plastic. Artificial corks can be very convincing, so look yours over carefully.
You’ll need to break the cork down into smaller bits, not only so it will decompose more quickly in your compost but also because corks are impermeable. One tip is that you can use a blender to crumble them up. Should you decide not to compost your corks, as an alternative, you can use them as mulch as long as they’ve been ground up.
Unfortunately, if you just have them in the original cork shape at their full size they will take years and years to break down.