As part of the Nike Considered Design program, Nike uses discarded water bottles destined for landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan where they can take up to 500 years to decompose.
The bottles are placed in a large washing machine to clean them and get rid of labels before they are chopped into tiny flakes and melted down into a yarn that is ultimately spun to make the fabric for the jerseys.
This ensures the kits remain the most eco-friendly ever by reducing energy consumption by up to 30% compared to manufacturing traditional polyester, and saving nearly 100 million plastic water bottles from being dumped at landfill sites.