According to statistics, each one of us throws away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles every year in North America. This discarded clothing can, and does, pose a serious threat to the environment. Fortunately there is a little known, but vast worldwide industry dedicated to removing this refuse from the waste stream and recycling the material and other textiles into highly useful, environmentally sound wiping rags.
From the company’s founding in 1969 until today, Rotex Supply has been at the forefront of the wiping rag industry. Originally recycling material from army surplus resources, the company grew rapidly as did the demand for larger quantities and greater varieties of wipers. Charitable organizations were the next logical source for raw material, as they accept far more donated clothing than they could ever possibly use. As our society becomes increasingly disposable, these charities have become an infinite wealth of high quality textile material to be processed into wiping rags. Recycled wiping rags are, by nature, 100% post consumer material, and absorb more, last longer, and are more durable than any comparable product.
The textile recycling industry removes over 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste annually from the waste stream.
Each half-ton bale in every trailer load is hand sorted piece-by-piece, hand cut into appropriate sizes. All buttons, rivets and zippers are neatly removed. A specialized metal detector allows Rotex to detect and remove all needles, pins, and other metal objects from selected wiping rags. All wipers are again sorted by quality, then packaged into assorted boxes, bags and bales. Every day, Rotex processes over 40,000 pounds of clothing into a considerable range of wipers. From a 10 lb carton to a 25 lb poly bag to an 800 lb compressed bale to a lint-free wiping rag for polishing to a high-absorbency wiper for spills… Rotex not only supplies the perfect material for almost any wiping application but also provides a truly cost effective and environmentally responsible solution for all of our customers’ wiping rag requirements.
Dedicated to our customers. Dedicated to innovation. Dedicated to the environment. That’s our story and you can hold us to it.