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WHEN footballers from 32 countries take to the sporting fields of South Africa to compete in the 2010 World Cup a product made from recycled plastic bottles will be keeping their feet dry.

More than 20 km of the Megaflo drainage system from Australian company Geofabrics has been installed at  Soccer City in Johannesburg, where the final will be played, the Sugar Ray Xulu and Green Point Stadiums in Cape Town, the Princess Magogo and Moses Mabhida Stadiums in Durban, and Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

High density polyethylene from recycled milk bottles is the feedstock for the core structure of the panel drain product which is laid horizontally for sports field drainage but can be used vertically in other applications. Recycled soft drink bottles provide the material for a geotextile outer skin whose micropores allow water to pass through but block soil and sand particles.

At Moses Mabhida Stadium the drainage network was laid in a herringbone pattern to transport water to a 300 mm collector pipe around the stadium periphery. A 6.7mm layer of crushed stone was laid over the drain network and covered with a growing medium of sand, composted pine bark and synthetic fibres which stabilise the turf as they become entwined with grass roots.

Geofabrics spokesman Rod Fyfe said international sales of the product are dominated by sports field applications while the main demand in Australia is for roads and engineering applications.

Earlier this month the company opened a A$2m ($2m) Geosynthetic Centre of Excellence in Queensland which will be used as a venue for collaborative testing and research with engineers, regulators, universities and government agencies.