JERSEY CORNER

Soccer teams to wear recycled bottles!

How many plastic bottles will Ronaldo or Robinho wear during the World Cup football? This is no yarn. They will wear jerseys made of recycled plastic bottles. Say yes to plastic is the message in the bottle. This may sound outrageous, but is precisely the message nine countries in the football World Cup in South Africa are spreading. 

With five-time world champions Brazil leading the charge, as it were, the Netherlands, Portugal, United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Slovenia are using plastic to tell the world that it is the best way to end its adverse environmental impact. 

    

In an email interview, a top official of Nike, which manufactured the jerseys, said many of the world’s leading players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho and Ji-Sung Park, will take to the pitch in South Africa wearing environmentfriendly jerseys. The jerseys are made entirely from recycled polyester, each one produced from up to eight recycled plastic bottles, said the official. 13M BOTTLES USED FOR JERSEYS 

Nine teams taking part in the World Cup in South Africa will be outfitted with jerseys which are environment friendly. With each team fielding a 23-member player contingent, it automatically means 184 bottles are used up per team at a time. With each player given an elaborate kit, the number of bottles consumed is mind-boggling as it is heartening. 

    As it is, the jerseys have helped in diverting around 13 million plastic bottles, totalling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from landfill sites. This amount would be enough to cover more than 29 football pitches, the official pointed out.

    And if the recycled bottles used to make the jerseys were laid end-to-end they would cover more than 3,000 km, which is more than the entire coastline of South Africa. 

    To manufacture the kits, the sports goods manufacturer’s fabric suppliers sourced discarded plastic bottles from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites and then melted them down to produce new yarn that was ultimately converted to fabric for the jerseys. This process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 % compared to manufacturing virgin polyester, the official claimed. 

Football teams: 9 Team members: 

23 per team 

1 jersey: 8 recycled bottles 

Jerseys: available in retail too 

Total bottles: 

13 million

With the jerseys available in retail, the idea seems potent enough to significantly lower plastic’s impact on the environment. 

    The manufacturers also claim that there will be no adverse body reaction to the plastic as the product has been tested carefully. 

    Whether Nike will source bottles from India is not known. But with the country being known for its extensive use of plastic, it may well strike it rich here. In any case, the jerseys are available in India. That will be good news for all those worried about the environment. 

    Time then to take on plastic, eight bottles at a time.