Green Loop Initiative
Leigh and Trans-Americas alliance expands “Green Loop” to keep more textile waste out of landfills
July 19, 2011
Leigh Fibers, Inc. and Trans-Americas Textile Recycling Inc., two industry leaders with a combined 168 years of textile and fiber recycling experience, have formed a strategic partnership to increase the volume of post-consumer textiles saved from landfills.
“This alliance will create the most comprehensive fiber and textile recycling process in North America,” said George Martin, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Leigh Fibers. “The combination of Leigh’s reprocessing capabilities and capacity and Trans-Americas’ recycling experience and logistical expertise gives customers access to a more complete closed-loop recycling system than ever before.” Eric Stubin, president of Trans-Americas Textile Recycling, said Leigh’s history and capabilities are a perfect fit with his company’s zero-landfill philosophy. “Together we can offer manufacturers of apparel, footwear and household textiles a more effective end-of-life program for their products,” he said. “We call it the Green Loop - an integrated approach that extends product usefulness to benefit the environment and enhance brand perceptions among consumers.”
Trans-Americas works with retailers, municipalities and charitable organizations to recycle used clothing/post-consumer textile waste (PCTW). PCTW comprises five percent of U.S. landfill volume, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and currently only about 25 percent is recycled. Trans-Americas currently processes nearly 17 million pounds a year and expects that to grow through its strategic partnership with Leigh Fibers, whose facility in Wellford, S.C. has the capacity to reprocess one million pounds per day.
About Leigh Fibers
Leigh Fibers, Inc. is North America’s leading reprocessor of fiber and textile by-products, having diverted some 14 billion pounds of waste from landfills throughout its 99-year history and turned it into useful material. Leigh has customers and sources of supply around the world, importing and exporting to more than 25 countries from its facilities in South Carolina (1 million sq. ft.) and Montreal. Its recycled fibers are used by leading manufacturers in the automotive, home furnishings, construction, casket, pet supplies, and other industries. Leigh is the only ISO-certified reprocessor of fiber and textiles. For more information, please call (864) 439-4111.
About Trans-Americas
In business since 1942, Trans-Americas is North America’s most experienced recycler of post-consumer textile waste. Operating out of its Clifton, N.J. plant, it recycles 70,000 lbs of PCTW daily. Trans-Americas recycles PCTW through a sophisticated mechanized sorting and grading process into hundreds of categories that it sells worldwide to fiber recyclers, wiping cloth dealers and used clothing markets. In 2009 it was recognized by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for “Outstanding Achievement in Recycling.” For more information, visit www.tranclo.com or call (973) 778-4611.