Polartec and Unifi have announced a new partnership to introduce performance fabrics made with Unifi’s Repreve 100, which is made from 100% post-consumer waste from clear plastic water bottles.

Polartec and Unifi’s collaborative efforts have grown Polartec's recycled product line from less than 1% of total production to over 30% in the past four years, dramatically reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption. The introduction of Repreve 100 will enable Polartec to shift much more production to recycled content by 2011. Every pound of Repreve 100 yarn contains approximately 27 water bottles.

Andy Vecchione, President of Polartec, LLC, states, "Unifi has been an excellent partner in our quest to deliver high performance recycled content fabrics while reducing our overall footprint throughout the supply chain. The goal has always been to use as much post consumer content as possible. We expect Repreve 100 based Polartec fabrics will hit the consumer market in the spring of 2011."

"In the past, limited technology presented many challenges in offering a high quality 100% post-consumer product," said Roger Berrier, Executive Vice President for Unifi. "As technology has evolved, we are now able to offer a first quality, 100% post-consumer product in the right colours and styles that Polartec requires for its fabrics."

The transition to Repreve 100 will be transparent to consumers except for a new hangtag and joint marketing program highlighting the benefits of Polartec performance products with Repreve 100. The look, feel and performance of the new fabrics will be the same as virgin polyester fabrics. Unifi says that every year over 21 billion plastic bottles enter landfill and through this partnership the two companies hope to raise the visibility of recycling and further educate consumers to adopt more eco-friendly practices.