Polartec Recycles Its Billionth Plastic Bottle

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): Textile company Polartec has recycled its billionth plastic bottle.

In 2014, more than 60 percent of Polartec’s domestic production used recycled yarns. These textiles are used in every fabric platform including Polartec Power Shield, Power Dry, Power Wool, Power Grid and Alpha.

Patagonia, L.L. Bean, The North Face, Arc’Teryx, Cabela’s, Eastern Mountain Sports, Carhartt and Eddie Bauer incorporate Polartec’s recycled fabrics into everything from base layers to outer protection wear.

Polartec is able to make high quality fleece using post-consumer recycling content through a partnership with Unifi. The companies developed Repreve 100, a yarn using 100 percent clear plastic bottles that is identical in terms of quality from fabrics using virgin polyester.

Ford uses Repreve fiber in its 2015 F-150.

In addition to its recycling achievement, Polartec has made a number infrastructure and process changes within its manufacturing plants to limit the company’s environmental impact. The company’s electricity consumption has been reduced by 24 percent since 2009, it recycles 85 percent of production water and its global hang tag program uses reduced-sized recycled tags to limit paper consumption.

Courtesy: www.environmentalleader.com