A ship loaded with 1,600 tonnes of rubbish set sail on Wednesday to return the rotting cargo to Britain from Brazil, where it had been shipped falsely declared as plastic for recycling.

Brazil will send 89 shipping containers of garbage, rotting and maggot-infested, back to Britain and has issued $419,000 in fines to the three Brazilian companies that imported it, the government said on Monday.

A motorcycle that can run solely on sugar cane ethanol, gasoline or a mixture of both has gone on sale in Brazil, where biofuel cars already dominate the roads, burning cheaper home-grown energy.