Unifi Achieves Milestone of 20 Billion Bottles Transformed

Unifi, a manufacturer of recycled and synthetic yarns, reaches its key goal set in 2017, transforming more than 20 billion PET bottles. The driver of this milestone was Unifi’s REPREVE platform of recycled performance fibers.

“We want to thank all of our brand and mill partners around the globe for helping us reach this significant achievement and working with us to reduce plastic bottle waste,” says Tom Caudle, president and chief operating officer of Unifi. “Because it takes one plastic bottle an average of 450 years or more to start decomposing, it’s important to keep as much plastic as possible out of our natural and urban landscapes. If each of us makes a conscious effort to recycle, we can improve our environment for today and can protect it for the future.”

According to Unifi:

Twenty 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
• Improve air quality by avoiding more than 517 million kilograms of CO₂ emissions

“Sustainability and recycling are key priorities for Unifi, and we are proud to lead by example as we continue to drive awareness of the importance of recycling,” Caudle concludes. “Consumer demand for more sustainable products will continue to drive demand for REPREVE from our brand, retail, and mill partners, and that will help us reach our goal of transforming 30 billion bottles in 2022.”

For more information, visit www.unifi.com.