They really put a cork in it!
Kids at a Brooklyn NYCHA neighborhood will soon be bouncing on hundreds of thousands of recycled wine and champagne corks — the first playground of its kind in the Big Apple.
The Marlboro Houses cut the ribbon Wednesday on their brand-new Village Vibes, a winding recreational space made out of 400,000 bottle corks collected from restaurants across the five boroughs.
“More people should start drinking wine and champagne!” joked Paula Jenkins, the president of the Marlboro Resident Association, about putting the old cork to good use.
The Gravesend community is the first city-run organization to benefit from the recycled initiative, led by Cork Collective.
The nonprofit collected about 400,000 used corks that were donated by bars, restaurants and hotels — giving the recycled material a new lease on life.
The corks were then shipped to a Wisconsin recycling plant, where they are cleaned, grounded down and reformed into blocks and cylinders.
While there were multiple players involved in bringing the new playground to life, it was the NYCHA community that brought it to fruition.
Children living at the NYCHA home submitted their own designs for the plan, which Jenkins and other community leaders used as inspiration for the play area.
The space’s path is lined by vibrant neon yellow structures, including pull-up bars, benches and interactive mechanics designed by The Urban Conga, posing as a fun and engaging environment for both kids and teens.
The cork isn’t just for sustainability — it’s also less toxic and more heat-resistant.
Most playgrounds are made using plastics and materials that heat up to uncomfortable temps — especially during the brutal heat wave gripping the Big Apple this week, Nazli Parvizi, a member of the Cork Collective, told The Post.
“They get this beautiful, safe sustainable surface. It’s a really hot day — that cork is cooler than the outside temperature. If it was rubber, it’d be 10 degrees hotter, and we get to have a wonderful use for all these corks we collect.”
Parvizi emphasized the innovative measure sheds a brighter light on safer play spaces that utilize human-friendly materials.
The free project also made its residents feel like it was a priority.
“Marlboro gets forgotten all the time. So Paula [Jenkins] and I are trying to make them see us,” said Natasha Franklin, program coordinator for Marlboro Cornerstone, the housing complex’s community center.
“Our job right now is to make them recognize that we’re here also.”
