Greensboro – Unifi, Inc., the US-based manufacturer of Repreve recycled polyester fibres and yarns, has set new 2030 goals for its recycling platform in its FY2025 Sustainability Snapshot, including a target to recycle 65 billion plastic bottles by the end of the decade.
The update is aimed at brand and manufacturing partners looking to scale the use of certified recycled inputs in knitted and woven products across apparel, footwear and home textiles.
The Snapshot reports that Unifi has now transformed the equivalent of one billion t-shirts’ worth of textile and yarn waste through the Repreve platform, which includes Repreve Takeback, ThermaLoop Insulation, Repreve ReCirculate and Repreve Nylon. The company’s 2030 roadmap calls for increasing this figure to 1.5 billion t-shirts’ worth of material, supporting circular feedstocks for mills seeking alternatives to virgin polyester chips in yarn spinning.
For knitters and hosiery manufacturers, the Repreve portfolio is positioned as a drop-in recycled polyester and nylon option for applications such as sportswear, athleisure, socks, seamless garments, footwear uppers and home furnishings.
The ReCirculate process blends post-industrial yarn waste with post-consumer bottle flake to produce resin that is extruded and spun into new fibre and yarn, enabling mills to specify recycled content in fine- and medium-gauge circular knitting, warp knitting and flat knitting programs without major process changes.
According to the Snapshot, Unifi has diverted 46 billion plastic bottles from landfill to date and is now working towards its higher 65 billion bottle goal by FY2030. Repreve accounted for 31% of Unifi’s FY2025 revenue, with the company targeting more than 50% of revenue from Repreve fibre by 2030, signalling a further shift of its product mix towards recycled and circular materials for fabric mills and brand programmes.
The update also notes operational and environmental indicators relevant to downstream supply chains, including zero non-compliant water discharges in FY2025 and an ongoing plan to reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 30% by FY2030.
These metrics are designed to support brands’ lifecycle and emissions reporting where REPREVE yarns are specified in finished knitted garments or textile components.
“Our sixth annual sustainability publication demonstrates our commitment to ‘Waste Nothing’,” said Eddie Ingle, CEO of Unifi. “We continually push boundaries in recycling, waste reduction and innovation to make recycled and circular manufacturing available globally and at scale.”
Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, Unifi supplies synthetic yarns and fibres to global brands and mills across fashion, sportswear, outdoor, automotive and home sectors.
The strengthened 2030 goals position the company to capture further demand from brands tightening recycled content targets and from knitwear, hosiery and technical textile producers responding to policy and retailer pressure on waste, traceability and carbon footprint.
