A major consumer of U.S. PET bales has unveiled three products made with recycled polyester and nylon.
Greensboro, N.C.-based Unifi, which produces recycled fibers for use in textiles, released two recycled polyester products and one post-industrial nylon fiber product. The company launched them at the Outdoor Retailer Snow Show 2019, which was held Jan. 30 through Feb. 1, 2019 in Denver.
Unifi sells recycled polyester under the Repreve brand name to a variety of markets. The publicly traded company owns PET bottle recycling operations that produce recycled PET, some of which is sold on the market and some of which is used internally to produce Repreve.
The following are the new fiber products:
TruFlexx: This engineered stretch fiber is made with Repreve brand recycled polyester. The 100 percent polyester fabric can replace spandex in mixed-material cloths, improving recyclability. Jay Hertwig, group vice president of global branded sales for Unifi, said the stretch is obtained by the way the yarn is processed through proprietary extrusion and texturizing technology. TruFlexx can replace spandex in the range of 5- to 10-percent recycled content.
TruClean: This product is a chemical-free, anti-static fiber. According to Unifi, static makes black and white jeans look dirty and faded and it makes pet hair stick to clothes. The anti-static fiber’s applications include apparel, automotive fabrics, curtains, pet bedding and upholstery.
Repreve nylon staple fiber: Hertwig said that, until now, Unifi’s recycled nylon offering has been limited to continuous filament, which is fiber extruded into one long string. The new post-industrial nylon product is a staple fiber, which means it’s sold in shorter lengths and can either be used at 100 percent in a yarn or spun with cotton, rayon, polyester and other fibers. Unifi purchases the recovered nylon polymer from an outside supplier, Hertwig said.
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