Nike World Cup Strips Made From 100% Recycled PET
(CC) coda/Flickr
Nike will soon be introducing the national team kits for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to be held in South Africa in June. Nine teams, including Brazil, England and the Netherlands will be clad in kits made of 100 percent recycled PET bottles converted into polyester yarn.
It is not the first time the company has introduced recycled PET clothing to a major sporting event, but it will be the first time all of Nike’s national teams will be equipped with the environmentally sustainable gear. In addition to the teams mentioned above, Portugal, United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Slovenia will all be sporting shirts, each made from up to eight recycled PET bottles.
Bottles will be collected from Taiwanese and Japanese landfills, and then processed in Taiwan before being shipped as polyester thread to manufacturing facilities. Manufacturing the Jerseys using recycled materials also requires 30 percent less energy than manufacturing from virgin materials, a saving that the company hopes will offset the slightly increased costs of production.
So far, Nike claims to have removed over 13 million plastic bottles from the landfills, or approximately 558,000 pounds of polyester waste. he World Cup replica jerseys will also be made from recycled PET, allowing fans to wear the same PET jerseys as their favourite players and expanding the initiative’s impact exponentially.
Explore posts in the same categories: Social responsibility