[leadin]Have you ever wondered what exactly our clothing fabric is made of?[/leadin]
Take Polyester for instance, what in the world is polyester actually? Many companies who don’t produce their own fabrics will buy from textile manufacturers. REPREVE is a company under the global textile manufacturing business, Unifi. REPREVE is challenging and changing the current textile industry…and they want you to know it. They are known for taking recycled plastic and through clean and eco friendly processes, turning those plastic materials into fabric and yarn. Many of the outdoor companies we buy from use REPREVE in some of their products. I had the opportunity to speak with REPREVE and ask them a bit more about their environmental endeavors.
What spawned and inspired REPREVE? Who is behind this innovation?
Sustainability has always been important for Unifi, and as part of this effort, we were looking at ways to reduce our waste in so in 2006, we started recycling our own waste and developed the 1st REPREVE product…in 2007, we commercialized our REPREVE product by recycling our internal waste and blending it with post-consumer plastics; to form the REPREVE hybrid yarn. Since 2007, we have introduced additional recycled products, including a fiber made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. Today, we recycled over 2 billion plastic bottles.