Our friend Tim drinks a lot of Mountain Dew but as he’s an active guy we don’t really give him a hard time for it. Of course between his thirst for the “Dew” and various sports drinks we do wonder what his recycling bin looks like – we’re sure there are a lot of plastic bottles. That’s not so good. But fortunately Mountain Dew and Burton Snowboards announced this month that they’re teaming up to roll out the 2013 Green Mountain Project. This outerwear collection is produced from sustainable fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. The GMP outerwear collection includes three stylish and eco-friendly jackets and two pants for men; and two jackets and one pant for women. All of it comes from fabric created from pellets of recycled bottles. So that bottle of Mountain Dew in Tim’s hand today could be on the slopes soon!
Tag: plastic bottles
Ski Dubai Looks to Go Green With DGRADE
Building a ski resort in the desert isn’t exactly the “greenest” thing we can think of, as it takes a lot of energy to make the snow, cool the slope and run Ski Dubai. In fact the facility is actually fairly green in its own right as it was build used green building techniques and has implemented a number of green policies and practices including effective waste management, energy saving initiatives, recycling and advanced refrigeration and insulation systems. But now Ski Dubai is looking to take this a step further to reduce its carbon footprint.
Ski Dubai announced recently that it will be carrying a special range of environmentally friendly clothing manufactured by DGRADE, a company that specializes in the development of clothing using recycled plastic bottles. This includes the roll out of a new line of sweaters – yes, sweaters in the desert – that are created using up to 30 recycled plastic bottles per garment. Continue reading Ski Dubai Looks to Go Green With DGRADE
Nike Makes Bottles a Boon for South African Football Teams
The recent trend in sports and fitness clothing is green, sustainability. Nike is part of this trend and especially when it comes to football (that’s soccer to many of you), and the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This year Nike is outfitting the Brazil team with home and away kits, plus eight away kits for other Nike-sponsored federations appearing in the games. What’s so sustainable about these kits or outfits you ask? Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced plastic bottles from landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan to produce the jerseys and shorts.
Eight plastic bottles produce one jersey. To turn bottle into soft, breathable fabric bottles the manufacturer melts the plastics down to produce new yarn and then convert that yarn into fabric to construct jerseys. Just because the jerseys are made from plastic doesn’t mean players will drown in their own sweat. Designed to keep players drier, cooler, and more comfortable, the outfit has a handful of features. The Dri-Fit fabric is 15 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, which also benefits players’ ability to do their stuff out on the field. The coordinating shorts have additional ventilation zones below the waistband and near the base of the spine to keep the outfit breathable.
The outfits have some protection built in as well. Nike Pro Combat, adds protection against light impact and abrasion in the Slider and Impact shorts. The Pro Combat also features a therma Mock that protects a player’s neck against harsh conditions such as sun.
The process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the manufacture of virgin polyester. For the upcoming season and competition, Nike salvaged roughly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling around 254,000 kg of polyester waste from landfill sites. That’s enough to stretch a distance of 3,000 kilometers if the bottles are laid out end-to-end.
The games take place in South Africa with teams from Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, U.S.A., South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia. Get your own team kits at nike.com and nikefootball.com.
Check out Nike’s video: Nike Introduces 2010 National Team Kits Designed for Increased Performance with Lower Environmental Impact