Good news, sports fans, the 2010 FIFA World Cup is just 92 days away and, like the Winter Olympics, these games will also be sporting some recycled wear. Nike has just unveiled their uniforms (or "kits" being the proper term) they've created especially for the teams they're sponsoring this year, made from recycled plastic bottles.
Each uniform is made from up to 8 recycled PET (#1) plastic bottles that are melted down and spun into the polyester yarn used. Nike has saved about 13 million of those plastic bottles from landfills in Japan and Taiwan – that's enough to cover 29 soccer fields (or "football pitches"). Making recycled polyester from the bottles takes 30% less energy than creating new "virgin" polyester.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2010.