Recent years have seen the end of the virtual monopoly of cork as the material for bottle stoppers, due to

concerns about the effect it may have on the contents of the bottle. This is caused by a chemical compound

called 2, 4, 6-trichloroanisole (TCA), which forms through the interaction of plant phenols, chlorine and mould.

The tiniest concentrations - as little as three or four parts to a trillion - can spoil the taste of the product

contained in the bottle. The result has been a gradual yet steady move first towards plastic stoppers and, more

recently, to aluminum screw caps. These substitutes are cheaper to manufacture and, in the case of screw

caps, more convenient for the user. The classical stopper does have several advantages, however. Firstly, its

traditional image is more in Keeping with that of the type of high-quality goods with which it has long been

associated. Secondly and very importantly – cork is a sustainable product that can be recycled without

difficulty. Moreover, cork forests are a resource which support local biodiversity, and prevent desertification in

the regions where they are planted. So, given the current concerns about environmental issues, the future of

this ancient material once again looks promising.

          Its traditional image shows high quality

        It is sustainable and recycled

         Cheaper to manufacture

Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degree Celsius, this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a ‘fire finish’. However, the process took a long time and was labor intensive.

Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glass makers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involve squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 percent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive.