Cortiça – Quercus Suber – is one of the world’s most sustainable materials. Cork is harvested from the tree by ‘stripping’ the cork bark with small axes. A highly skilled and labour intensive process handed down between generations. Harvested every 9 years, a cork tree can live for 200 years. Once removed from the tree, the cork bark is stacked in the open air for around 6 months before it’s put to use in a wide range of products from toys to flooring, and the nose of NASA space rockets! Read more about cork flooring & products by clicking here. 

The cork industry is a backbone to Portugal’s rural way of life – supporting some 9,000 direct jobs and at least 6,500 indirect jobs in agroforestry. This encourages people to settle locally, halting the depopulation of rural communities, which in turn supports the industries of livestock, beekeeping and the production of mushrooms and medicinal plants. 

Other products available on Ecochild include animals made from wool and toy cars, robots and aeroplanes made from repurposed wood and exotic timber species.