Unifi opens new bottle recycling plant

Unifi Inc., Greensboro, N.C., has opened a new processing center as part of an initiative to vertically integrate bottle processing as the source of raw materials for its Repreve line of recycled fiber. The new plastics recycling facility in Reidsville, N.C., represents an investment of more than $28 million and includes a front-end PET purification system that was designed, manufactured and installed by Bulk Handling Systems, Eugene, Ore.

The plant, which uses nine optical sorting units from National Recovery Technologies (NRT), Nashville, Tenn., can process more than 22,000 pounds of baled plastic containers per hour, according to Unifi.