Within the bottle processing plant in Reidsville, North Carolina, drifts of plastic particles, like snow banks, are piled in each nook of the equipment that chops the bottles into flake. Once I ask our tour information, a flooring supervisor, if he worries about respiratory it in, he says he does not. “We do a superb job of cleansing it up,” he says, including that the luggage of mud which can be vacuumed up are bought off, and the wastewater is filtered.
However I’m involved. A 2023 research of a UK plastics recycling plant discovered that even after the set up of state-of-the-art filters, round 6 p.c of the plastic being processed was launched into the wastewater as micro and nanoplastic, whereas the air across the facility was filled with microplastics sufficiently small to be hazardous to human well being.
Scientists are nonetheless puzzling out what microplastics do to our well being, however one research discovered that individuals with IBS tended to have extra microplastics, together with PET and polyamide (of which nylon is one kind), of their intestine. Whereas PET appears to be one of the benign out of all of the plastics, no less than two research have discovered BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical, in polyester child clothes, and quite a lot of manufacturers agreed to a settlement with California lawmakers in 2023 over the presence of BPA in polyester athletic shirts.
As well as, water utility managers in Reidsville have alleged that Unifi and different polyester producers could possibly be doubtlessly be sources of 1,4-dioxane, a possible human carcinogen, within the Cape Worry watershed, which gives consuming water for over 1 million individuals because it flows from central to southeast North Carolina. Technically, that’s not unlawful (particularly since Unifi, together with different industrial sources and several other cities, efficiently lobbied in opposition to a North Carolina rule limiting 1,4-dioxane in wastewater). As a result of 1,4-dioxane is a byproduct of producing PET resin, the EPA declared in late 2024 that just about any publicity to 1,4-dioxane constitutes an unreasonable threat to the well being of polyester staff and surrounding communities. There are (very pricey) methods to deal with wastewater for 1,4-dioxane, so how ensuing rules would have an effect on Unifi stays to be seen, particularly because the EPA doesn’t at present appear eager to do any regulating of poisonous chemical publicity.
Ingle and Boyd each declined to talk intimately about these points. In individual, they cited the recommendation of Unifi’s counsel (BPA), mentioned Unifi follows all rules (1,4-dioxane), or pled ignorance (microplastics). Comply with-up inquiries to Boyd went unanswered. Ingle responded to follow-up questions through e-mail by writing, “We preserve energetic participation in The Microfibre Consortium, as a way to assist tutorial and trade analysis into the supply and affect of fiber fragmentation from textiles into the pure setting.” And “We’re compliant with all native, state, and federal rules for all of our websites.”
To advocates, every micro-scandal is proof that there is no such thing as a environmentally pleasant polyester. “We won’t do that sustainably in a unhazardous method, it is actually not possible,” Pecci says.
However I left the Repreve plant questioning if we’re letting excellent be the enemy of fine American jobs. Polyester will proceed to be in demand, and it’ll both be made right here in a compliant manufacturing facility utilizing recycled sources, or overseas in a sketchy manufacturing facility utilizing recent petrochemicals. Pecci says she doesn’t wish to “name out that firm or these individuals, as a result of they could be the nicest individuals on this planet doing the most effective they’ll with what they’ve.” She described for me a utopia through which unhazardous and pure clothes is all made right here after which composted and recycled right here. Sounds attractive, and not possible.
In February of this 12 months, Unifi introduced it was closing its Madison, North Carolina, polyester processing plant. It might ship a few of its equipment to its Latin American vegetation, and provide the Madison workers new job alternatives on the Yadkinsville and Reidsville vegetation, which stay in service.
For now, anyway.
