Nine of the soccer teams in the 2010 World Cup are wearing uniforms made of recycled materials manufactured by Taiwanese textile companies, the European Parliament magazine reported recently. Wang Chen-tai, head of the news division at the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium, was quoted in the magazine as saying that while Taiwan does not have a team in the World Cup, it has supplied uniforms for the international sports event. Wang said the uniforms are evidence of Taiwan's cutting-edge technology in the textile sector and its commitment to reducing carbon emissions and protecting the global environment. The Taiwan sportswear supplied to the nine teams and retailers were made from 13 million recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, with each sports shirt requiring eight recycled PET bottles on average, he said. The World Cup teams wearing the Taiwan-made sports uniforms are Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Slovakia. The manufacturing process involved breaking down the PET bottles which were then extruded into polyester fiber and spun into fabric, according to the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI). To color the shirts, the Taiwan manufacturers employed a dyeing technology that meets global green standards, which is an indication that Taiwan has become a world leader in that particular production area, the institute said. It took years of research by the Taiwan textile sector and the TTRI to develop that manufacturing technology, it added. Apart from its entry into the world's premier soccer competition, Wang said, Taiwan-made environmentally friendly sportswear has also become popular among multinational sports goods brands. 