| Resumo: | Cork is a material whose applications have been known since Antiquity, especially in floating devices and as stopper for beverages, mainly wine, whose market, from the early twentieth century, had a massive expansion, particularly due to the development of several cork based agglomerates. Cork is closely related to the maintenance of biodiversity, the heart of sustainable development, and the reduction of emissions and sequestration of CO2, aspects that, additionally to the environmental importance, are also economically very important (Gil, 2011). Other services such as the formation of the landscape, soil protection, regulation of hydrological cycle, are also very sound (Pereira, 2007). Cork regenerates after each stripping, and the cork tree survives the lost of an important quantity, often more than 50% of the total trunk and branches' surface. The fact that corks are made of the bark harvested from living trees has lead environmentalists to encourage the use of cork over other, less natural, alternatives.
|
|---|