Unifi, Inc., an innovator in recycled and synthetic yarns, reached a key goal set in 2017, transforming more than 20 billion PET bottles. The driver of this new milestone was Unifi’s Repreve® platform of recycled performance fibers, which has been adopted by more than 500 global brand and textile partners.
To put the milestone into context, 20 billion single serve plastic bottles can physically circle the earth approximately 100 times or fill the Empire State building more than 13 times.
Recycling and transforming these bottles has the potential to:
•Save enough energy to power more than 189,000 average homes for one year;
•Save more than 1.7 billion liters of water, the equivalent of one year of drinking water for approximately 2.3 million people; and
•Improve air quality by avoiding more than 517 million kilograms of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of eliminating CO2 emissions from the consumption of 1.2 million barrels of oil.
This milestone is also the equivalent of keeping 156 plastic bottles per U.S. household (assuming approximately 128 million U.S. households) out of the landfill and transforming them into sustainable fabric with Repreve recycled performance fibers that are used in apparel, upholstery, automotive and industrial applications.
The idea for Repreve was born in the early 2000s when Unifi was looking for a way to recycle its own fiber waste. The solution evolved to include using recycled plastic bottles as raw material for fiber, with the option to add performance capabilities like moisture-wicking and odor control.
In addition to keeping bottles out of landfills and giving them a second life, Repreve production uses less energy and water, while also producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to manufacturing virgin synthetic fibers.
Published in the August 2020 Edition
