Recycled Polyester Saved This American Factory. Environmentalists Hate It

Recycled Polyester Saved This American Factory. Environmentalists Hate It

Unifi survived competition from China by helping fashion brands meet sustainability goals. But not everyone agrees that its polyester made from recycled plastic bottles should be produced in the US.

Recycled Polyester Saved This American Factory. Environmentalists Hate It - Data Intelligence

In the bottle processing plant in Reidsville, North Carolina, drifts of plastic particles, like snow banks, are piled in every nook of the machinery that chops the bottles into flake. When I ask our tour guide, a floor manager, if he worries about breathing it in, he says he doesn’t. “We do a good job of cleaning it up,” he says, adding that the bags of dust that are vacuumed up are sold off, and the wastewater is filtered. But I’m concerned. A …