As American Airlines Admirals Club® locations celebrate the club’s 70th birthday, all those recently popped corks are getting recycled. Admirals Club lounges in 24 cities have partnered with ReCORK America and Sodexo to begin an environment-friendly recycling program to reduce the number of wine corks that end up in landfills.

ReCORK America is a wine-cork recycling program sponsored by cork company Corticeira Amorim of Portugal and its U.S. sales affiliates, Amorim Cork America and Portocork America. According to Amorim, sponsor of ReCORK America, more than 13 billion natural cork wine stoppers are produced worldwide for the wine industry each year. This new initiative, offered in every domestic Admirals Club lounge plus the San Juan location, will recycle natural wine corks—those made from cork material—used by the clubs or brought into the clubs by customers, by donating them to ReCORK America. In turn, ReCORK America will send them to manufacturers that can turn them into items such as shoe soles or flooring.

"We are pleased to work with ReCORK America to recycle and reuse products that would normally be thrown away," says Nancy Knipp, president of the Admirals Club. "Even small items such as wine corks, when recycled, can make a big difference to our environment."

"Natural cork wine closures are ideal for recycling because they are a truly sustainable resource and one of the few forms of product packaging that is 100-percent recyclable, biodegradable, and completely environmentally friendly," says Roger Archey, spokesperson for ReCORK America. "Cork is also a natural retainer of CO2 and helps fight global warming."

Lately, American's Admirals Club lounges have had a few more corks to recycle than usual as they toast their 70th birthday. In 1939, American Airlines opened the airline industry's first VIP lounge at LaGuardia Airport in New York. Today, seven decades later, more than 40 clubs are located worldwide.