HOMEWOOD, PA—Thread International plans to recycle plastic bottles collected by workers in Haiti, Honduras and Taiwan into fabric and use it to manufacture shoes, clothing and a new line of high-end backpacks, reports Trib Total Media. The company's founder and CEO is Ian Rosenberger, who appeared on the reality show Survivor in 2005. Rosenberger founded Thread in 2012 and has been selling fabrics to the likes of Timberland, Reebok, Marmot and Aerie.
In April, a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation allowed him to open a facility on the top floor of a former factory in Homewood with the idea of manufacturing backpacks and other items there for retail sales. He said the company has so far recycled 40 million plastic bottles. The bottles are ground up into flakes and made into fabric.