WASTE STREAMS TO
CONSUMER GOODS
Thursday, March 24, 2016
The Sustainability Graduate Programs at Wake Forest University had the opportunity to visit Unifi’s facility in Yadkinville, NC to learn more about their Repreve product.
REPREVE IS A YARN MADE FROM RECYCLED PLASTIC BOTTLES, turning an environmentally harmful waste stream into a new consumer product. Repreve is used by clothing companies like Quiksilver and Patagonia and even used in seats in some Ford models. So far Unifi has reclaimed and used 630 million plastic bottles in Repreve. That’s 4 billion fewer bottles sitting in a landfill since 2007 — not to mention the resources saved by creating new products with recycled materials.
During our visit, we had the opportunity to speak with Unifi’s Channel Marketing Manager to learn about the sales and marketing process for this unique product. We had a Q&A session with the Corporate Process Improvement Manager, the Vice President of Supply Chain, and an RRC engineer. It was a great opportunity to make excellent contacts at a successful, relevant, global company.
We toured the facility and saw how recovered plastic bottles could go from waste to input to finished product. We were able to see firsthand the complexities of creating products from recycled goods. For a lot of us, this was our first time in a manufacturing plant so it was a great opportunity to learn about manufacturing in the context of sustainability.
Originally published at graduate.cees.wfu.edu on March 24, 2016.
Photos courtesy of Repreve Unifi Inc.
