Wine lovers everywhere could finally have the answer to the cork versus screw-top debate.

Whether a wine bottle should have a traditional cork or the more convenient, yet environmentally unfriendly screw-top has become a favourite middle-class discussion point at the dinner table.

But with the creation of what has been billed as the world’s first carbon-neutral, fully recyclable third option – now on sale at Waitrose – wine drinkers may have the best of both worlds.

The Select Bio cork, which looks and feels like a traditional cork, is made from a plant-based biopolymer derived from Brazilian sugar cane which is normally used to produce biofuels.

The stopper, according to its US-based manufacturer Nomacorc, has a smaller carbon footprint than traditional corks – made from the stripped bark of a cork tree – plastic corks and aluminium screw-tops.