Brazil to sport World Cup strip with a lot of (recycled) bottle

DUBAI // Shoppers in the Mall of the Emirates were given a small sample of the Rio Carnival last night as Brazil launched their new, environmentally friendly football kit made from recycled plastic bottles. The likes of footballers Robinho and Kaka will go in search of the World Cup in South Africa this summer wearing shirts made from the innovative polyester yarn. Nike, the kit suppliers, manufactures the fabric using discarded bottles from landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan, which is then spun into yarn.

In producing the new range of shirts, Nike prevented 13 million bottles from disposal, thus saving on nearly 254,000kg of polyester waste. Brazil will be one of nine nations wearing shirts made from the fabric, along with Holland, Portugal, United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Slovenia. Dan Frolec, the Middle East business director for Nike, said: "We believe this design will allow for the best performance and also sustainability.

"The large driver is that football is so important. For football fans, Brazil are thought of as being one of the sides with the best chances of winning the World Cup in South Africa 2010." @Email:newsdesk@thenational.ae