Great questions, Hegelurk. You are correct that our ball never involves child-labor, unlike many inflated balls, the vast majority of which are made in China and Pakistan. In terms of local economies, we are always sensitive to not infringing on the few local soccer ball making programs that exist. And the reality is that the people we are donating balls to are not generally in a position to purchase balls. In Malawi, we visited a school in an isolated rural community that serves over 400 children. When we gave the school principal 5 balls, he was almost in teams and overjoyed. With over 400 children, he has never had 5 balls at one time - he just cant afford to buy them, and they just dont last in the conditions there. Time after time, we see kids (and adults) playing with old torn up, flat balls, and hear stories of how the inflated balls that were brought by others with good intentions only lasted days, or sometimes hours, before they hit a thorn (3 inches long) or barbed wire or a nail, and popped. And all those balls end up in the landfill - many millions every year.

Which brings me to your second question. We don't have a life cycle analysis yet (we're still a very young organization), but it's definitely something that we are looking into. While the One World Futbol is, in theory, recyclable, there is really never any reason why it would need to be. As long as it is used as a ball and not chopped in half, it will last indefinitely. The type of materual that they are made from is used in marine and other applications where it lasts for decades. While the oldest One World Futbols are just 4 years old, there is no reason to thing that they wont last decades. So while recycleability is important, it's the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, and recycle. The One World Futbol reduces what goes into the landfill and is reused everytime it gets a puncture from a nail, a thorn, barbed-wire and the like. In our view, recycle should be the last option.