Unifi announces Repreve Champions of Sustainability winners

Unifi Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina, has announced the winners of its inaugural Repreve Champions of Sustainability awards. The awards acknowledge companies that make their products with Repreve fibers, which are made from recycled materials, including plastic bottles.

The 2017 winners of the Repreve Champions of Sustainability awards were announced at the 2018 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Denver, Jan. 25-28.

“Unifi created the Repreve Champions of Sustainability awards to recognize our brand and textile partners that have achieved plastic bottle recycling milestones as a result of their use of Repreve performance fibers,” says Kevin Hall, Unifi chairman and CEO. “We are proud to honor companies that exemplify leadership in sustainability and are among those that have contributed to the more than 10 billion bottles that Unifi has recycled so far. We look forward to recognizing even more companies in the future as we work toward our goal of recycling 30 billion bottles by 2022.”

Twenty-five brand and retail partners that have each used the equivalent of 10 million or more bottles, and 15 textile partners that have each used the equivalent of 50 million or more bottles, through the use of Repreve fiber were honored. A list of award recipients can be found by visiting repreve.com/champions.

“More than 70 percent of plastic bottles in the United States end up in a landfill,” says Hall. “By creating these awards, we hope to inspire designers, customers and consumers to continue to invest in sustainability, and that together we can make everyday life better by transforming recycled plastic bottles into the products consumers use every day.”

In addition to the bottle awards, Unifi also has introduced four special category awards:

• Repreve Partners in Innovation recognizes companies using Repreve in a way that’s unique to the market.
• Repreve Circular Economy recognizes companies demonstrating best-in-class use of the closed loop concept, which aims to eliminate waste throughout the product life cycle.
• Repreve Newcomer recognizes key companies that started using Repreve in the past year.
• Repreve All-In recognizes companies that integrated Repreve into their entire product line from the beginning of the partnership.

To craft the actual awards, Unifi partnered with The Olio, a nonprofit organization based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, that focuses on teaching and empowerment through entrepreneurship, glassblowing, art and sustainable solutions. Each custom crafted award is blown by hand from glass recycled from area restaurants and bars, and sits on a base made from recycled aluminum and reclaimed wood, Unifi explains.

Unifi announced in late 2017 that it had recycled more than 10 billion plastic bottles as of 2017 and has a target to recycle 20 billion bottles by 2020 and 30 billion bottles by 2022.