Making the shirts this way is expected to cut the amount of energy used in production by 30%  and save 13 million plastic bottles going to landfill sites this year alone.

Nike would not comment on how many shirts it expected to sell, but using 13 million bottles would equate to more than 1.5 million shirts to be worn by the players and supporters of countries including Brazil, Portugal and the Netherlands. Nike aims to make England’s kit, produced by its Umbro subsidiary, from recycled materials as soon as possible.

The recycled polyester will come from a supplier in Taiwan, using plastic from discarded bottles from Japan and Taiwan. They will be cut up, melted down and spun into a yarn that is ultimately converted into the fabric for the shirts.

Charlie Denson, president of Nike Brand, said that the recycled shirts – which will be a permenant fixture in its range – represented a good deal for consumers, the environment and the company’s shareholders. The fabric used is more expensive than normal, but Mr Denson said the American sportswear manufacturer was able to reduce the expense by using less material and cutting costs elsewhere. He added that consumers would not be penalised for buying sustainable products, because the shirts would cost the same price as normal. The company is keen to make more of its products using sustainable materials to secure its supplies given the increasing scarcity of the world’s natural resources.

Throughout the week, a number of events will take place to raise environmental awareness in the community – with presentations, exhibitions and workshops available throughout the week.

Events due to take place during Eco Week include Schools Environmental Workshop, a sustainable travel day, a tour of the Estuary Recycling Centre, Compost & Grow It Yourself Workshop, a WEEE collection day and much more.

To celebrate, Fingal Eco-Week compost bins will be available at half-price at the Estuary and Coolmine Recycling Centres throughout the week.

As there are limited places available for some of the events booking is essential – Tel: (01) 890 6236.

Click here to download the brochure with all the events.

The award was presented for the Green Campus initiative, which, in the past three years has seen the university save €300,000 in waste management costs, by reducing waste to landfill by nearly 400 tonnes and improving recycling from 21% to 60%. Furthermore, UCC has conserved almost enough water this year to fill the equivalent of the Lough in Cork city.

An Taisce, on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), granted the international accreditation after a rigorous assessment by an expert panel. The award was presented by Environment Minister John Gormley, on behalf of An Taisce, to UCC president Dr Michael Murphy.

In addition to staff recycling systems that previously existed, new recycling facilities for students are now available in front of the lecture halls and in the canteens where staff are trained in minimising waste. Students in lecture theatres and laboratories are alerted to turn off lights and electrical equipment. College maintenance vehicles are now running on biodiesel and carpooling has been introduced to facilitate lifts to and from campus.

“It is quite a leap, transforming the Green Schools programme – geared for the typical school of a few hundred students – to a complex campus of 130 acres, 16,000 students and almost 3,000 staff,” Dr Michael John O’Mahony of An Taisce said.

“In population terms, UCC is bigger than your average Irish town – so, bringing together all the necessary parties and practices to develop it into a sustainable Green-Campus was a real challenge.”

UCC’s Dr Murphy said it is a source of great pride to the university, its staff and its students, that UCC has become the first third level institution in the world to be awarded the designation. “It is a wonderful achievement to have innovative thinkers among the staff and students in UCC – all working towards the same objective.

“It was these students, who had been part of the Green Flag programme at secondary school level, who believed from the outset that the concept could be transferred successfully to an institution of UCC’s size and that, by raising awareness throughout the university, we could, together, make a real difference.”

Dr Michael Murphy, President, UCC, Ian Power, Deputy President, UCC Students Union, Minister John Gormley, Mr Jan Eriksen, President, Foundation for Environmental Education, Charles Stanley-Smith, Chairman, An Taisce, and Mark Poland, Director of Buildings & Estates, UCC, with EnviroSoc students Darren Reidy, Mirjam Hirzel and Hazel Smyth.

Sneaker vs Bottle

A new scholarship programme for the DCU School of Nursing has been introduced and will be funded through the collection of unwanted mobile phones.

The winners of the scholarships will be chosen from DCU’s Access Scholarship programme. Each of the scholarships will be funded through the collection and recycling of 600 mobile phones.

The unwanted mobile phones will be recycled and the cash raised converted into home nursing care for Jack & Jill families nationwide, as well as supporting the nursing students.

The food company said cutting packaging in the product design phase is the most effective method. To do that, Kraft developed the ‘Packaging Eco-Calculator’ – a tool that helps packaging developers create efficient and optimised packaging.

In Europe, the removal of packaging layers from Milka chocolate bars resulted in 60% less weight and an elimination of 5.7 million pounds (2,600 metric tonnes) of packaging material per year. Kraft said it is spreading the design to markets in Latin America.

The company also focused on the type of materials used in an effort to increase recycled content and recyclability of the packaging for its products.

In the UK, Kraft Foods recently began selling Kenco coffee in refill bags to complement glass jars. The refill bags use 97% less packaging material by weight than a new jar and less energy in the packaging conversion process.

The shop, in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, is timber-framed rather than steel and uses skylights and sun pipes to cut lighting costs. It also has a combined heat and power plant powered by renewable bio-fuels, exporting extra electricity back to the national grid. In addition, the refrigerators – one of the biggest blackspots for food retailers trumpeting their green credentials – have doors to save energy and harmful HFC refrigerant gases have been replaced.

Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said – “It shows that you can dramatically alter how much carbon you use and life can go on.”

The majority of Tetra Pak cartons in Ireland can now use paperboard sourced from FSC certified forests and other controlled sources, demonstrating the company’s ongoing commitment to responsible forest management.

The move comes as part of the company’s ongoing drive to attain certified traceability from forest to consumer according to the highest available standard – FSC.

This development will see supply increase from 200 million FSC certified packs available globally in 2008, to over 1.5 billion packs in Ireland and the UK alone. All the European mills supplying Tetra Pak’s paperboard have FSC Chain of Custody certification in place, demonstrating traceability and acceptability of the board used.

Tetra Pak is also committed to increasing the recycling of its cartons, which can be used as raw material for other products. In 2008, 25.6 billion cartons were recycled worldwide – up 64% since 2002. Over the next year, 75% of the cartons made by Tetra Pak for Ireland and the UK will become FSC certified.

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