(TheDrinksBusiness) - For many people, cork represents little more than a handy stopper for keeping wine in its bottle until they’re ready to drink it.

However, many of the properties which make this such an effective wine closure also mean that cork represents an attractive solution for numerous other industries.

The drinks business has already explored some of the many processes that transform this raw material into the stopper you remove at the end of a long day or that signals the start of a party. Now it’s time to look at what happens to the 70% of cork bark that doesn’t make the grade for this most high profile application.

Read on to discover why everyone from horses to astronauts and supermodels should be grateful to the humble cork oak for its extraordinary bark.